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Teaching surgical exposures to undergraduate medical students: an integration concept for anatomical and surgical education

  • Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Published:
Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Decreasing numbers of students are interested in starting a surgical career, posing substantial challenges to patient care in the next years. The anatomy course is one of the key subjects in medical training, especially in surgical disciplines. Innovative teaching concepts that integrate surgically relevant anatomy and manual dexterity might help boost student interest in surgery.

Methods

A preclinical workshop entitled “Surgical exposures” was developed. A team of anatomists and surgeons introduced the surgical exposures, demonstrating the procedures on Thiel-fixed body donors. Following this introduction, students practiced the exposures in an operating room-like manner. A six-point Likert scale was used to evaluate the workshop and to compare it to the first-year dissection course.

Results

The overall evaluation result for the surgical exposures was excellent, proving to be a significantly better result when compared to the first-year dissection course. The students were more satisfied with the teaching time invested by the peers and regarded the workshop as clinically highly relevant. Furthermore, they felt that questions were addressed better and that the overall atmosphere was better than in the gross anatomy course. Subject to criticism was the course size and practicing time in both cases.

Discussion

The surgical exposures workshop provides preclinical students with clinically relevant anatomy and manual dexterity. It may positively influence the decision to follow a surgical career. This course, however, requires extensive teaching resources. The given concept may help implement practical medical skills in the preclinical curriculum, strengthening the professional identity of surgeons and anatomists.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Christine Auste for taking the pictures of the workshop. Matthias Henze helped with the student survey. Robert Möbius performed the statistics. Gustav F. Preller proofread the paper as a native speaker.

Conflict of interest

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Anatomy, University of Leipzig, Liebigstraße 13, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Niels Hammer, Sabine Löffler & Hanno Steinke

  2. Department of Orthopedic, Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery, University Clinic of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Pierre Hepp, Stefan Schleifenbaum & Stefan Klima

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  1. Niels Hammer
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  2. Pierre Hepp
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  3. Sabine Löffler
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  4. Stefan Schleifenbaum
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Correspondence to Niels Hammer.

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Hammer, N., Hepp, P., Löffler, S. et al. Teaching surgical exposures to undergraduate medical students: an integration concept for anatomical and surgical education. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 135, 795–803 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-015-2217-7

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