Quality and Satisfaction with the Surgical Medical Clerkship from a Student Perspective

Preface The surgical medical clerkship is of special importance, as the student is given the opportunity to get in touch with medical colleagues and patients for the first time, and the interest in a certain field of specialisation can be consolidated. The present study will clarify how students perceived their medical clerkship in the field of surgery. Methods A nationwide online survey carried out in 2012 was able to recruit 9079 participants, and contained questions about the completed curricular internships. The present evaluation contains the data of those respondents who had completed at least four weeks of internship in surgery. The following main groups were of particular interest: overall assessment, satisfaction, structure and quality of teaching, of the teachers, and the acquisition of practical skills, which were divided into 35 items. Statistical evaluation was carried out using SPSS 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA). In addition to the descriptive statistics, the Chi(2) test was performed for frequencies, and univariate ANOVAs with the sub-subject factor group (satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied) were performed for the individual items. Results Overall, the data of 526 participants could be analysed. The female proportion of students was 56.7%; the average age at the time of the survey was 25 years. In all evaluated items, there were significant differences between the groups satisfied and dissatisfied. The participants of the survey who were satisfied with the overall qualification (p = 0.000), reported that they benefited with regard to the technical and didactic quality of teaching (p = 0.000), the acquisition of practical competences (p = 0.000), as well as the didactic and professional quality of teaching (p = 0.000). Discussion Little is published about the internships for students, including the medical clerkship "Famulatur". However, this information seems to be important, as the students can freely choose the subject in which the Famulatur can be completed. Thus, in this early phase of training, it is possible to recruit young academics for the department by optimising existing structures and improving the range of courses.