Development of a “Surgical Shadowing Scheme” to improve undergraduate experiences of surgery

Figures & data

Figure 1 Overview of the various surgical sub-specialties chosen by students for shadowing sessions. (A) Number of students that chose each specialty; (B) breakdown of specialties chosen by male and female students (140 respondents).

Table 1 Breakdown of students participating in the shadowing scheme by medical school year group

Year group		No. of students (%)
Pre-clinical	1st year	73 (52.1)
	2nd year	35 (25.0)
	3rd year (intercalated BSc)	20 (14.3)
Clinical	4th year	8 (5.7)
	5th year	3 (2.1)
	6th year	1 (0.7)
Total		140 (100)

Figure 2 Breakdown of student shadowing sessions. (A) Participation in shadowing scheme by identified gender; (B) proportion of students with previous exposure to the surgical sub-specialty shadowed; (C) number of hours spent in the operating theater during shadowing session; (D) proportion of students who scrubbed-in and assisted during their shadowing session (140 respondents).

Figure 3 Student evaluation of the shadowing scheme. (A) Change in self-reported understanding of the specific surgical sub-specialty shadowed during shadowing sessions; (B) effect of participating in the shadowing scheme on student desire to pursue a surgical career in the future. Box plots display medians plus IQRs. Circular values represent outliers >1.5x IQR. ***p<0.001 assessed using Mann–Whitney U test (140 respondents).