Medical Students Get a Jump on Surgical Skills
First- and second-year students at four Pennsylvania medical schools took a much-needed study break recently—but not to get pizza or catch a movie.
Instead, they practiced tying surgical knots with Erie urologist Peter S. Lund, MD, FACS.
Third-year medical student Travis Meyer, who helped organize the Skills Night at Penn State College of Medicine, said the students were excited to learn something “ahead of the curve.”
“Medical students are a competitive bunch. In your first and second years, you’re also anxious to do the hands-on stuff,” he said.
“The Skills Nights are a wonderful relief from the very hard grind of didactics,” added Dr. Lund, the immediate past president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society.
Sessions were held at Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine between February and April 2008. Another will be held at Penn State in December 2008. They are sponsored by the Institute for Good Medicine at the Pennsylvania Medical Society.
Students enjoyed personal interaction with Dr. Lund and faculty members as they walked around demonstrating surgical knots on knot-tying boards and pigs’ feet.
Dr. Lund said he also enjoyed talking with those just starting out in medicine.
“They’re really trying to find their way. The whole gamut of medicine is in front of them,” Dr. Lund said.
Dr. Lund will return to Penn State with internist and current Medical Society President Daniel Glunk, MD, for another session in early December.
Last Updated: 10/24/2008