A structured teaching curriculum for medical students improves their performance on the National Board of Medical Examiners shelf examination in surgery

• We developed a resident-led, student taught surgery clerkship curriculum for third-year medical students.
• We compared student taught with resident taught presentations.
• We investigated the effects of this curriculum on NBME surgery shelf performance.
• A structured curriculum can significantly improve performance on the NBME examination.
• In the appropriate setting, medical student teaching can be as effective as resident teaching.

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a resident-driven, student taught educational curriculum on the medical students' performance on the National Board of Medical Examiners surgery subject examination (NBME).MethodsOn daily morning rounds, medical students or the chief resident delivered preassigned brief presentations on 1 or 2 of the 30 common surgical topics selected for the curriculum. An initial assessment of student knowledge and an end-rotation in-house examination (multiple choice question examination) were conducted. The mean scores on the NBME examination were compared between students in teams using this teaching curriculum and those without it.ResultsA total of 57 third-year medical students participated in the study. The mean score on the in-house postclerkship multiple choice question examination was increased by 23.5% (P < .05). The mean NBME scores were significantly higher in the students who underwent the teaching curriculum when compared with their peers who were not exposed to the teaching curriculum (78 vs 72, P < .05).ConclusionThe implementation of a resident-driven structured teaching curriculum improved performance of medical students on the NBME examination.