School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
School of Medical Education, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2023 Nov;105(8):765-771. doi: 10.1308/rcsann.2023.0048.
Vascular surgery is a recognised surgical subspecialty covering an array of circulatory conditions predominately affecting geriatric and diabetic patients. As such, a wide breadth of clinicians will see patients with vascular pathologies, but it is unclear how detailed their knowledge base is. Key to this is the education of medical students, which has been poorly documented during undergraduate training in the UK. VENUM aimed to establish students' perceptions of vascular surgery and their confidence in performing vascular objective structured clinical examination (OCSE) skills.
During the academic year of 2022/2023, final-year medical students were invited to complete a JISC survey (collaborative authorship). Seventy-seven research leads were recruited to disseminate the survey. Quantitative and thematic analysis was used to assess the data.
In total, 240 final-year medical students completed the survey (54% female; 26 medical schools represented). Forty-five per cent of students reported never having had a vascular placement, 24% had never completed a vascular-focused clinical examination and 26% reported low confidence in performing ankle brachial pressure index measurement. An assessment of peripheral arterial disease morbidity was answered correctly in 17% of respondents compared with 92% for angina (chi-square test <0.001). Students perceived the specialty to be non-inclusive and that early exposure to vascular surgery was required for better engagement with the specialty.
Students have experienced little exposure to vascular surgery. This may affect future recruitment to vascular surgery and overall knowledge of vascular conditions in UK-trained doctors, which may affect long-term patient management.
血管外科学是一个公认的外科分支学科，涵盖了一系列主要影响老年和糖尿病患者的循环系统疾病。因此，许多临床医生都会看到患有血管病变的患者，但不清楚他们的知识库有多详细。关键是医学生的教育，在英国的本科培训中，这方面的教育记录很差。VENUM 旨在了解学生对血管外科学的看法以及他们对进行血管客观结构化临床检查（OCSE）技能的信心。
在 2022/2023 学年期间，邀请最后一年的医学生完成 JISC 调查（合作作者）。招募了 77 名研究负责人来传播调查。使用定量和主题分析来评估数据。
共有 240 名最后一年的医学生完成了调查（54%为女性；代表 26 所医学院校）。45%的学生报告从未有过血管实习经历，24%从未完成过血管专科临床检查，26%报告在进行踝肱血压指数测量时信心不足。与 angina（卡方检验<0.001）的 92%相比，只有 17%的受访者正确回答了外周动脉疾病发病率的评估问题。学生认为该专业缺乏包容性，需要尽早接触血管外科学，以更好地参与该专业。
学生很少接触血管外科学。这可能会影响未来对血管外科学的招聘以及英国培训医生对血管疾病的整体知识，这可能会影响长期的患者管理。
