The use of a lightly preserved cadaver and full thickness pig skin to teach technical skills on the surgery clerkship--a response to the economic pressures facing academic medicine today.
BACKGROUND
In response to declining instruction in technical skills, the authors instituted a novel method to teach basic procedural skills to medical students beginning the surgery clerkship.


METHODS
Sixty-three medical students participated in a skills training laboratory. The first part of the laboratory taught basic suturing skills, and the second involved a cadaver with pig skin grafted to different anatomic locations. Clinical scenarios were simulated, and students performed essential procedural skills.


RESULTS
Students learned most of their suturing skills in the laboratory skills sessions, compared with the emergency room or the operating room (P = .01). Students reported that the laboratory allowed them greater opportunity to participate in the emergency room and operating room. Students also felt that the suture laboratory contributed greatly to their skills in wound closure. Finally, 90% of students had never received instruction on suturing, and only 12% had performed any procedural skills before beginning the surgery rotation.


CONCLUSIONS
The laboratory described is an effective way of insuring that necessary technical skills are imparted during the surgery rotation.
DiMaggio
Paul J
PJ
Department of Surgery and Anatomy, University of Arizona, Medical Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Waer
Amy L
AL
Desmarais
Thomas J
TJ
Sozanski
Jesse
J
Timmerman
Hannah
H
Lopez
Joshua A
JA
Poskus
Diane M
DM
Tatum
Joshua
J
Adamas-Rappaport
William J
WJ
D000818:Animals; D002102:Cadaver; D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000191:economics; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003162:Competency-Based Education / Q000191:economics; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D013536:Suture Techniques / Q000193:education*; D013552:Swine