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A program of microsurgical training for young medical students: Are younger students better?
Author(s) -
Scholz Martin,
Mücke Thomas,
Hölzle Frank,
Schmieder Kirsten,
Engelhardt Martin,
Pechlivanis Ioannis,
Harders Albrecht G.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
microsurgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.031
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1098-2752
pISSN - 0738-1085
DOI - 10.1002/micr.20269
Subject(s) - economic shortage , medicine , microsurgery , medical education , training (meteorology) , medical school , statistical analysis , surgery , statistics , linguistics , philosophy , physics , mathematics , government (linguistics) , meteorology
In the European countries there is a lack of young doctors. This shortage limits the possibilities for recruiting skilled surgeons for the microsurgical disciplines. Complicating the situation is the fact that most students do not decide on their area of specialization until the late clinical semesters. The authors present a new program of microsurgical training that dispenses completely with animal training. In addition, a scoring system is presented that enables instructors to compare the microsurgical skills of different students for the purpose of further statistical analysis. This scoring system could be used for the evaluation of potential microsurgical candidates as well as for other purposes, e.g. scientific projects. A total of 36 students with an average age of 24.2 were trained, with good‐to‐excellent results. Microsurgical training of young students can be recommended. A point worth exploring in the future is whether there are different learning curves for different age groups. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. Microsurgery, 2006.