Undergraduate teaching in a day surgery unit: a 2-year evaluation

Medical schools are having to adapt their teaching in response to the reduction in inpatient availability and the increase in outpatient and community care. A surgical course for first clinical-year undergraduate medical students was established in the day surgery unit at King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1995. It was considered desirable because of the shift to day-case surgery, and proved feasible to run (Seabrook et al. 1997a). The course is taken by one-third of the annual intake of 120 students. A formal evaluation was undertaken comprising comparison of student performance in end-of-year clinical and multiple choice examinations and of acceptability to students, teachers and managers. The results showed no significant differences in performance between students who had taken the day-surgery course and those on other surgical attachments. Students' satisfaction with the course was significantly higher on nine individual criteria and lower on four criteria. The teaching was positively viewed by teachers and managers, despite having costs as well as benefits. We conclude that day-surgery centres can be used successfully to teach medical undergraduates. Experience in both inpatient and day-case environments should benefit students by reflecting more closely the reality of current surgical care.