Artikel
Differences between rural and central surgery in medical students' surgical education
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Veröffentlicht: | 5. September 2012 |
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Poster
Introduction: In their last year students of human medicine at Medical University of Graz have to complete ten weeks of practical surgical training. These surgical weeks can be completed at the Medical University at different clinics or at different surgical departments of rural teaching hospitals. Students should learn basic surgical skills and prepare ten case reports which they have to present at the end.
Methods: We prepared a logbook at the district hospital of Voitsberg as well as at the university clinic of surgery in Graz with all skills that can be learned during the practical training. The training areas were divided into three parts: operation room, outpatient clinic and ward. Furthermore all possible disease patterns of each surgical department were listed in the logbook for the students to facilitate the choice for their case reports.
Results: At both institutions tutors are named to accompany the students during ten weeks. However, because of the small team at the district hospital all surgeons are involved in the surgical education of the students. In the outpatient clinic and the operating room of the district hospital students see a great variety of surgical problems and can easily learn basic surgical skills whereas at the university clinic they have many different surgical divisions and accordingly specialised operations and dedicated outpatient clinics. At the ward students see far more special diseases and unusual, more complex cases at the university clinic than at the district hospital; therefore it might be easier to choose patients for the necessary case reports.
Discussion: Differences between rural and central surgery in the surgical department structure cause differences in surgical education of medical students. To benefit from both, students would need to stay half the time at the clinic and half the time at a district hospital. However, if students have decided to further specialize in a surgical discipline, we would recommend spending the time primarily with rural surgery because basic surgical skills could be learned easier there and one has a closer student-tutor relationship.