Accepted Type
Oral
Code
OB2-2-3
Was this work accepted for CCME 2020?
no
Category
General Call (Workshop, Oral Presentation, Poster Presentation)
Type
Oral
Sub Type
Education Research
Will the presenter be a:
Student
Affiliation
Considered for Poster
yes
Title
The impact of undergraduate conferences on medical student engagement in Ophthalmology and surgery.
Length of Presentation
Background/Purpose
Given the highly competitive nature of Ophthalmology and the decreasing emphasis on surgical teaching at undergraduate level, early exposure is an important factor in developing interest and awareness for Ophthalmology and its application process. Thus, we organised an Ophthalmology conference for UK undergraduate medical students as a curriculum adjunct, whilst aiming to ascertain pre- and post-conference perceptions towards a career in Ophthalmology.
Methods
Collaborating with Moorfields Eye Hospital, we delivered a national conference incorporating keynote lectures into the Ophthalmology subspecialties, panel discussions, and practical workshops including microsurgical skills and portfolio and interview techniques. Pre- and post-conference questionnaires were distributed to the 56 attendees, assessing key metrics encompassing awareness of Ophthalmology and surgery as a career and confidence in performing relevant practical skills.
Results
Pre- and post-conference 5-point Likert responses demonstrated statistically significant increases across metrics including understanding of Ophthalmology Speciality Training application (2.80±1.13 to 4.37±0.63 (p<0.001)), understanding of Ophthalmology as a career (3.27±0.93 to 4.41±0.62 (p<0.001)) and confidence performing basic microsurgical techniques from 1.71±1.14 to 3.51±0.62 (p<0.001).
Thematic analysis of qualitative responses revealed lifestyle or work-life balance as the biggest attracting factor to the speciality (pre-conference 22.2% of respondents, post-conference 29.3%), whereas competition rate as the major deterring factor (31.8% pre-conference vs 35.6% post-conference).
Lectures were rated at 4.26±0.53, workshops 4.35±0.17, and an overall conference rating of 4.55±1.13, with 98% of attendees indicating they would recommend this to colleagues.
Conclusion
We demonstrate the profound value of this conference on improving awareness of Ophthalmology from an early career stage. We propose that extrapolating this undergraduate curriculum adjunct will stimulate similar impactful engagement across other surgical specialities.
Keyword 1
Ophthalmology
Keyword 2
Undergraduate
Keyword 3
Microsurgical skills
Level of Training
Post Graduate
Abstract Themes
Curriculum
Curriculum
General
Additional Theme (First choice)
Undergraduate
Additional Theme (Second Choice)
Additional Theme (Third Choice)
Authors
Presenter
Filippos Papadopoulos
Term 1
Yes
Term 2
Yes
Term 3
Yes
Term 4
Yes
Term 5
Yes
