A one-day surgical-skill training course for medical students’ improved surgical skills and increased interest in surgery as a career

BACKGROUND: Despite many high-quality programs in basic surgical-skill education, the surgical skill of junior doctors varies widely. This, together with the waning interest in surgery as a career among medical students, is a serious issue confronted by hospitals and healthcare systems worldwide. We, therefore, developed and implemented an intensive one-day surgical-skill training course for two purposes; it would improve surgical skills and increase interest in surgery among medical students. METHODS: The surgical-skill training program is named Surgical Skill Weekend (SSW) and it includes hands-on training sessions for surgical-suturing techniques and advanced surgical procedures (i.e. laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery), hybrid simulation sessions, and an operating-room session where aforementioned sessions are all put together. By the end of the program, students’ improvements in surgical-suturing skills were assessed by experts in a form of checklist, and changes in the interest in a surgical career, if there were any, were answered by the students who participated in the program. RESULTS: A total of ninety-one (91) medical students participated in the 2015 and 2016 SSW courses. Their overall satisfaction level with the course was very high (Very satisfied: 78%, Quite satisfied: 22%). All of the participant’s surgical-suturing skills significantly improved (median score range: 14–20, P < 0.05) and their interest in a surgical career increased significantly (from 56% to 81%, P < 0.05) by completing the program. CONCLUSIONS: An intensive and comprehensive surgical-skill training program for medical students can not only improve surgical-suturing skills but also increase interest in surgery as a career. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-017-1106-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.