Increasing the attractiveness of surgical disciplines for students: Implications of a robot-assisted hands-on training course for medical education

• Published in: Frontiers in surgery 2022-07, Vol.9, p.953565-953565
• Main Authors: Ekrutt, Jonas, Leyh-Bannurah, Sami-Ramzi, Knipper, Sophie, Schramm, Frederik, Beyer, Burkhard, Maurer, Tobias, Graefen, Markus, Budäus, Lars
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: curriculum; evaluation; mentoring; robotic surgery; simulation; Surgery
• ISSN: 2296-875X; 2296-875X
• DOI: 10.3389/fsurg.2022.953565

BackgroundStructured implementation of robot-assisted surgery in the field of medical education is lacking. We assessed students' interest in robot-assisted surgery and tested if the implementation of a hands-on robotic course into the curriculum could increase the interest to join a surgical discipline in general and especially in female students, since women are clearly underrepresented in surgical disciplines. MethodsAfter a prostate cancer focused seminar, 100 students were 1:1 randomized into two groups. Group B: Baseline characteristics and professional interest were assessed prior and after a hands-on robotic course, using a da Vinci® console with simulator (da Vinci® Surgical training, Intuitive Surgical Inc., USA). Group A served as post-interventional consistency control group, received the questionnaire only once after the hands-on training. ResultsThe male to female ratio of students was 54% and 46%. The interest to turn into urology/surgery, categorized as yes", "no", "maybe" changed from 18 to 16%, 36 to 30% and 46 to 54% respectively after the hands-on robotic course (p