AB175. SOH21AS185. Peer-led basic surgical skills training for interns: bridging the surgical-medical skills gap during internship

Background: Core surgical skills are both advantageous and necessary in the pursuit of several post-graduate specialities, beyond formal surgical training. Early opportunity to practice and obtain these skills can only serve to improve doctor competency and confidence levels, thus progressing safe patient care. Despite this, basic surgical skills are not listed as a required clinical competency by the National Intern Training Programme. This study sought to evaluate the impact, if any, of peer-led basic surgical skills and suturing workshops on interns’ confidence in undertaking these skills.

Methods: The study utilised pre and post workshop questionnaires to evaluate interns’ experience and confidence levels with respect to basic surgical skills.

Results: Most interns reported that they had not received enough surgical skills teaching at medical school and that surgical and medical topics had not been given equal consideration at structured intern teaching sessions thus far in their internship. Interns were less confident in assessing surgical emergencies compared to medical emergencies on the ward and few had a good working knowledge of the components necessary to safely manage a simple superficial surgical wound. Having attended the workshop, interns reported an overall improved level of confidence with respect to their suturing and most felt confident to manage a simple surgical wound.

Conclusions: A discordance exits between the acquirement of medical and surgical clinical skills during internship year. Utilisation of peer-led basic surgical skills workshops has the potential to bridge this gap, ultimately enhancing patient care. The findings of our study should inform future amendments to the current internship curriculum.

Keywords: Clinical competency; confidence levels; internship; knot-tying; suturing