Value of fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery training in a fourth-year medical school advanced surgical skills elective

BackgroundFew data are available describing the benefits of initiating fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery (FLS) training during medical school. We hypothesized that an intense 1-month surgical skills elective that included FLS task training for fourth-year medical students (MS4s) would result in performance levels indistinguishable from graduating chief residents (PGY5) who had received clinical skill training and access to self-guided FLS curriculum.MethodsFrom July 2007 through June 2011, 114 MS4s participated in a 1-month advanced surgical skills elective. The curriculum for the elective included cadaver dissections, patient management presentations, and surgical skill training (open surgical skills and basic laparoscopic skills modules performed on FLS trainers and virtual reality laparoscopic simulators). From June 2009 through June 2011, 21 PGY5s graduated who had never received formalized FLS skills training. These residents were tested on FLS by a certified proctor and the results recorded. The performance outcome measure was task completion time. Unpaired Student's t-test was used to compare the performance measures for each group.ResultsAll PGY5s achieved FLS certification on their first attempt and completed enough cases for graduation. The MS4 group showed significantly better performance than the PGY5 group in the peg transfer and circle cut (P < 0.05). No difference was seen in the knot tying tasks between the two groups (P > 0.05)ConclusionsIncorporating FLS training into a 1 month-long medical school surgery elective enabled MS4s to achieve FLS performance similar to, or better than, the performance achieved by PGY5 surgery residents. We support the integration of FLS skills task training as a standard part of the skills training curriculum for medical students.