Surgery Clerkship Curriculum Changes at an Academic Institution during the COVID-19 Pandemic

PROBLEM: The COVID-19 pandemic has suspended the surgery clinical clerkship for third-year medical students at numerous institutions across the world. As a result, educators and students have adapted rapidly. There is a paucity of precedents regarding urgent and brusque formal curricular changes for medical students enrolled in surgical clinical rotations. APPROACH: The University of California, San Francisco Department of Surgery created a surgically focused extended mastery learning rotation (EMLR). The surgery clerkship leadership designed a curriculum consisting of multiple learning strategies compatible with virtual learning environments. The primary aims of the newly developed EMLR were to help students consolidate their foundational science knowledge before their return to clinical medicine in an altered learning environment. The EMLR is currently underway, and further studies are necessary to evaluate its effectiveness.