Surgery Clerkship - LCME

The surgical curriculum is not a static object. A curriculum evolves as each year passes. In the last eight years new procedures involving surgery surgical principles have changed the cognitive knowledge as well as the judgment algorhythms which must and do play an important part of surgical expertise and therefore, must be incorporated into the clerkship surgical curriculum. The classic example being the use of the FAST EXAM in blunt abdominal trauma as opposed to diagnostic peritoneal lavage. The use of the laparoscope involving hernia repairs, colonsectomys, and damage control surgery have now become an important part of the surgical armamentarium. Changes in surgical principles in the management of breast cancer, malignant melanoma and other surgical diseases have to be incorporated into the clerkship cognitive curriculum. 

The clerkship curriculum must now include further study of imaging principles with examples, with imaging scans, mammograms, ultrasounds, CT’s, all of which are now appearing in the National Board, the NBME Part II and Part III. 

The undergraduate surgical curriculum cannot be confined to the third year and therefore, must be made to modify the fourth year to create a more valuable bridge from the medical school to the surgical residency with a heavy emphasis on clinical skills.