Teaching and evaluation of basic surgical techniques: The University of British Columbia experience

Surgical technical education has traditionally followed an apprenticeship f ormat. The need for innovative undergraduate programs using dry and wet lab s prior to clinical exposure continues to be an area of debate. Specific pr ograms have been described to improve surgical skills; however, an accepted platform for training and evaluation of surgical skills programs has not b een recognized. Therefore, introduction of specific programs to teach under graduate medical students surgical skills is essential. This article descri bes the Basic Surgical Technique (BST) program taught at the University of British Columbia and reports the effectiveness of this program in improving the practical skills of undergraduate medical students. The program includ es BST I for third-year students performed in a dry lab setting, and BST II for medical student interns (MSI) performed at the animal laboratories usi ng female domestic swine as subjects. A total of 87 students participated i n the study. The program is designed using Piaget's and Vygotsky's pedagogi cal philosophy of "learning by doing." A semiquantitative method is used to measure and analyze the outcome of this project. Data were validated using student self-evaluation tests and by quantitative evaluation by surgical s taff from the surgical wards. Results of this prospective project indicated that the BST program significantly (p < .05) improved the surgical perform ance of undergraduate students, and that the time lapse between BST I and I I has had a negative impact in retention of acquired surgical skills. This study concludes that the BST program taught at the University of British Co lumbia significantly improves the surgical skills of medical students and i mproves their self-confidence during their internship.