Development of an Interactive Remote Basic Surgical Skills Mini-Curriculum for Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction. Teaching surgical skills has historically been a hands-on activity, with instructors and learners in close physical proximity. This paradigm was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring innovative solutions to surmount challenges of teaching remotely. In this work, we describe our institution’s path early results developing an interactive remote course for medical students clerkship. Methods. 31 third-year were distributed set equipment 3D printed phone dock. Each participant completed baseline questionnaire underwent 3 structured sessions on instruments, knot tying, suturing techniques. Students instructed sharing their first-person viewpoint received real-time feedback tying techniques from instructor. Pre- post-session surveys conducted analyzed. Results. All able complete successfully, as defined visually demonstrating successful two-handed simple suture Students’ aggregate confidence score ability (pretest mean 7.9, SD 0.7 vs posttest 9.7, 0.9, t-statistic −2.3, P = .03) 8.0, 1.3 13.8, 0.9 −5.5, < .001) significantly improved after intervention. Qualitative underscored utility perspective technique. Conclusion. study demonstrates that can be effectively implemented using learning curriculum well learners.