Y. N. AlJamal1, B. Gas1, S. Heller1, D. Farley1 1Mayo Clinic,General Surgery,Rochester, MN, USA
Introduction: Converting recent medical school graduates from timid, incompetent, and bewildered learners to a trusted, skillful, and savvy surgical intern takes more than a one-week Boot Camp. Programs pour hundreds of hours and extensive resources into creating a diverse learning opportunity for incoming interns. We ponder how effective this effort has been in our institution.
Methods: We tabulated our work effort in creating and administering our weeklong boot camp and assessed intern pre- and post-test performance. Trainees were asked for candid feedback the week of the boot camp and anonymously 4 months later.
Results: June of 2015, thirty incoming interns participated in our boot camp. Over 7 days of education and orientation, delivery included 16 hours of lecture, 20 hours of ATLS, 4 hours of simulation, 12 hours of computer training, and 8 hours of team building. Over 1000 man-hours of effort was involved (1 PD, 3 PC, 5 STAFF, and 10 others used prep, delivery, and post-camp time) in course creation and delivery. Posttest scores of necessary intern skills (72 vs. 43, p = 0.01) exceeded pre-test performance. Immediate intern feedback was positive (grateful 100%, useful 100%, engaging 100%) but not without critique (overwhelming 100%, too much computer training 100%, and not enough clinical vignettes 65%). Anonymous feedback 4 months into internship from 22 interns revealed different feedback: too little computer training 31%, not enough time for surgical skills 25%, and more desire to engage with senior trainees 30% and discussing surgical scenarios 30%.
Conclusion: The true value of a surgical boot camp is elusive to obtain. Data and feedback from our orientation effort suggests we deliver a message that interns retain, but we need to dial back the water pressure from the fire hose and focus more time on bonding interns with peers and upper level trainees especially with hands on training.