Growing the 'SEAD': Expansion of the Surgical Exploration and Discovery Program

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• 作者：Linden Head ; HBA ; BSc ; BPHE^* ; Brittany Greene ; BHSc^* ; Nada Gawad ; MD^&dagger ; ; ^&Dagger ; ; Christine Seabrook ; MEd^&dagger ; ; ^§ ; ; Kim Tardioli ; RPN^║ ; Stanley J. Hamstra ; PhD^&dagger ; ; ^§ ; ; ^║ ; Tim Brandys ; MD ; MEd^&dagger ; ; ^║ ; ^{tbrandys@toh.on.ca" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 关键词：undergraduate medical education ; medical students ; surgical education ; simulation ; career choice ; surgery
• 刊名：Journal of Surgical Education
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：January-February 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：73
• 期：1
• 页码：101-110
• 全文大小：166 K

文摘

The declining popularity of surgical specialties among North American medical students has been attributed partially to limited early exposure and minimal involvement of surgeons in preclerkship education; in response, the Surgical Exploration and Discovery (SEAD) program was developed at the University of Toronto in 2012. SEAD is a 2-week curriculum that provides first-year medical students comprehensive exposure to surgical specialties through operating room observerships, simulation workshops, and career discussions. This study is the first to examine implementation of the SEAD program at another site.

Methods

This prospective cohort study evaluated the effectiveness of the SEAD program in improving surgical knowledge and facilitating career decision making when compared with a control group. In all, 18 students participated in the SEAD program, and 18 students from the same class read only the program’s instructional manual; both the groups completed multiple-choice tests and questionnaires at baseline and at completion to assess knowledge acquisition and career-related learning.

Results

Both the groups significantly improved their surgical knowledge, but there was no difference between groups. SEAD participants made significantly greater progress in refining their career decisions when compared with the control group; all but one SEAD participant either gained interest in or ruled out a surgical specialty as a potential career choice compared with only 10 of the participants reading the manual only.

Conclusions

The SEAD program provides a meaningful opportunity for medical students to explore surgical careers during preclerkship and to make better-informed career decisions. This expansion demonstrates that the program can be successfully reproduced at another institution.