Efficacy of Undergraduate Medical Education in Anatomical Sciences for Surgical Residency Preparation

Undergraduate medical education has transformed over the past decades into a more integrated, clinically oriented, and team‐based curricula, guided by the core competencies. Contact hours for foundational basic sciences have seen a steady and drastic decrease. The implications of these changes on preparedness of interns for graduate medical education have been of concern to residency program directors for some time. The purpose of this study was to assess preparedness of interns starting a surgical residency program, in terms of basic sciences knowledge and other core competencies. Two 18‐item surveys were created in Qualtrics ; one for faculty and one for residents. The survey assessed perceived importance of basic sciences to the discipline, areas of deficiency, and changes in preparedness and quality of interns over the past 10 years. The survey was distributed to all surgical residency programs in the U.S. Survey results were compared between the two cohorts and comments were thematically organized and analyzed for emerging patterns. Faculty and residents from over 25% of U.S. surgical residency programs completed the survey. For all items assessing intern preparedness level at the onset of the program, residents consistently rated themselves as more prepared than faculty did. Majority of the faculty reported a decline in preparedness of incoming residents over the last decade; listing deficiencies in basic skills, basic sciences knowledge, clinical experience, and independence. Residents and faculty both identified interns' deficiencies in integrating foundational knowledge with clinical practice and in effective interaction with, and treatment of patients. More residents than faculty identified basic sciences as the most valuable subject a surgical intern should acquire in medical school. More faculty than residents identified competencies such as interpersonal skills, self‐directed learning, critical thinking, and exposure to clinical practice as the most valuable skill or subject to acquire during medical school. In terms of basic sciences content, both cohorts rated anatomy, physiology, and microbiology as the most important subjects for success in surgical residency. Biochemistry, embryology and histology were rated higher by faculty than residents. The results of this study report a perceived decline in preparedness of surgical residency interns in the past decade. Both faculty and residents report the importance of basic sciences education in medical schools but faculty placed more emphasis on other core competencies. These findings suggest further evaluation of the changing medical curricula is necessary to ensure that students acquire knowledge and skill sets necessary to be successful in graduate medical education.