TRAUMA AND CRITICAL CARE CLINICAL-PERFORMANCE - IMPACT OF UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

Background: Residency program directors expect medical students to lea rn trauma and surgical critical care (SCC) clinical skills in medical school. Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) validly and reliably assess clinical skills. Purpose: This study assessed the tra uma and SCC clinical skills of surgery interns. Methods: A 3-part, 6-s tation OSCE was used to assess these clinical skills at 2 periods of i nternship: beginning (preinterns) and completion (postinterns). Result s: Postinterns preformed significantly better, and 44% of score varian ce was attributable to training level. This indicates that internship provides significant trauma and SCC training. Preinterns frequently di d not have an undergraduate trauma rotation (52%) or critical care rot ation (48%). Undergraduate education in trauma or critical care did no t improve performance or respective clinical skills. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that undergradute trauma and critical c are education is deficient in opportunity and content. This study prov ides objective suppport for establishing formal undergraduate trauma a nd critical care curricula.