513 Surgical Science Secrets - an Innovative Way to Supplement Undergraduate Surgical Education

Abstract

Abstract Aim In recent years undergraduate medical curriculum has been focusing on general practice. Together with the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, time spent on surgical education has been significantly reduced. Hence, medical graduates feel stressful when start working in surgical rotations. Our team has designed a peer reviewed teaching derived from National Undergraduate Surgical Curriculum which aims to prepare medical graduates for their surgical jobs. Method Four fundamental series covering general, orthopaedics, head and neck and vascular surgery were delivered every fortnight online from April to October 2022. Audience was invited to rate from a Likert Scale 1-5 to assess their confidence levels before and after the sessions. Sign test is used to ascertain whether the change in confidence level is statistically significant. Mann-Whitney U test is used to compare inter-series difference. Results There were in total 744 participants from UK and overseas medical schools. The average confidence level before and after the teaching sessions were 3.23 and 4.19. The change was statistically significant in each series (p<0.05) Majority of the audience preferred case discussions and MCQ-based teachings which helped with their final exam preparation. There was no inter-series statistical difference between orthopaedics and head and neck series (p>0.05). However, other series had demonstrated differences due to inconsistent audience size. Conclusions Online peer-to-peer teaching is a new trend to medical education since COVID-19 pandemic. With high yield contents and practice questions, it can enhance participants’ confidence in making medical decisions. Future work should be conducted with a constructive aligned teaching to standardise undergraduate medical education.