The Feasibility of Practical Training in Minimally Invasive Surgery at Medical School—A Prospective Study on the Pelvitrainer

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The acquisition of practical skills at medical school is an important part of the multidimensional education program of future physicians. However, medical schools throughout the world have been slow in incorporating practical skills in their curriculum. Therefore, the aims of the present prospective study were (a) to demonstrate the feasibility of such surgical training, (b) to objectify its benefit in medical education, and (c) to investigate the impact of such training on subsequent career choices. Material and Methods: We introduced a two-day laparoscopy course on the pelvitrainer as part of the curriculum of the gynecological internship of fifth year medical students from 2019 to 2020. The results of the students’ training were matched to those of surgeons who completed the same curriculum in a professional postgraduate laparoscopy course from 2017 to 2020 in a comparative study design. Additionally, we performed a questionnaire-based evaluation of the impact of the course on medical education and subsequent career choices directly before and after completing the course. Results: A total of 261 medical students and 206 physicians completed the training program. At baseline, the students performed significantly more poorly than physicians in a median of three of four exercises (p < 0.001). However, this evened out in the final runs, during which students performed more poorly than physicians only in one exercise and even better than physicians in one. The general integration of surgical training in medical school curricula was rated very low (12.4% on the VAS, IQR 3–16%) despite the high demand for such training. In the survey, the course was deemed very beneficial for medical education (median VAS 80.7%, IQR 73–98%), but did not appear to influence the students’ subsequent career preferences. Conclusions: The acquisition of practical surgical skills during medical school is significantly under-represented in many medical faculties. The benefits of such training, as demonstrated in our study, would improve the education of future physicians.