Twelve Tips for Enhancing Student Learning Experience in the Operating Room

Abstract

Student learning within the Operating Room (OR) is complex and challenging, especially for medical students who heavily rely upon structured learning plans. Medical students’ OR-based surgical learning experience is heterogenous, unstandardized, and inadequate for many reasons. There is a growing need to evaluate the learning modalities and models that we currently use for medical graduates’ OR-based learning process, create a balance between structured and opportunistic learning encounters and incorporate previously identified factors that have been known to influence the quality of OR-based learning positively. In continuation with our previous work on OR-based learning, here we argue for a structured OR-based learning plan that embodies appropriate learning models and teaching methodologies and focuses on a comprehensive plan that justifies a local needs analysis and addresses factors influencing the quality of OR-based student learning to produce enhanced learning outcomes.