Evaluating the Effectiveness of the General Surgery Intern Boot Camp

Abstract

The aim of our study is to evaluate the effectiveness of newly implemented general surgery intern boot camp. A 2-day didactic and skills-based intern boot camp was implemented before the start of clinical duties. Participants who did not attend all boot camp activities and had prior postgraduate training were excluded. A survey utilizing a 5-point Likert scale scoring system was used to assess the participants’ confidence to perform intern-level tasks before and after the boot camp. Subgroup analyses were performed comparing changes in confidence among graduates from home institution versus others and general surgery versus other subspecialties. In the analysis, 21 participants over two years were included. Among them, 7 were graduates from home institution (4 general surgery, 3 subspecialty) and 14 were from other institutions (6 general surgery and 8 subspecialty). There were significant increases in overall confidence levels (pre = 2.79 vs post = 3.43, P < 0.001) after the boot camp. Additionally, there were improvements for all subcategories including medical knowledge (2.65 vs 3.36, P < 0.001), technical skill (3.02 vs 3.51, P < 0.001), interpersonal skills and communication (3.04 vs 3.53, P = 0.001), and practice-based learning (2.65 vs 3.41, P = 0.001). There was an improvement in confidence level for both home institution graduates (2.89 vs 3.53, P = 0.022) and other graduates (2.74 vs 3.34, P < 0.001). Similarly, participants from general surgery (2.78 vs 3.46, P = 0.001) and other specialties (2.74 vs 3.34, P < 0.001) reported significant improvement in confidence. General surgery intern boot camp before the start of official rotation is effective in improving confidence level in performing level-appropriate tasks of the incoming new interns.

An Anatomy Pre-Course Predicts Student Performance in a Professional Veterinary Anatomy Curriculum

“…This supports previous work described in the veterinary field (8), but also supports data from other fields. Educational boot camps are widely used in many fields and are gaining popularity, including advanced human medical training (24,25), the basic sciences (26), and undergraduate education (27), though their influence on advanced medical skills has been questioned (28). However, to our knowledge, none of these boot camps have correlated student performance in subsequent programs (28).…”

Strengthening medical training programmes by focusing on professional transitions: a national bridging programme to prepare medical school graduates for their role as medical interns in Botswana

“…Pre-internship programmes are usually of limited duration (several hours to several weeks) and focus on the acquisition of discrete skills. Self-assessment is usually used in evaluation of these programmes [ 36 , 40 , 41 ], although some have implemented objective knowledge assessments [ 42 ]. While participants often demonstrate improved self-confidence [ 36 ], which has proven to be durable in some settings [ 40 ], other authors have not reported on the phenomenon of tempered self-confidence that we observed in a subset of our participants.…”

“Knowledge is not knowledge unless it is knowledge”

“…Kenny and colleagues 1 provide a good first step in the systematic evaluation of simulation and live operating boot camp experiences. 1 Others have demonstrated similar results in improving the confidence of trainees, 2,3 and it is well known that confidence is a key trait of a successful surgeon. Long-term sustainability and applicability of knowledge gained in boot camps (as a significant improvement relative to others who have trained in the traditional manner) were not clearly demonstrated.…”