Introducing a novel hybrid educational bootcamp to augment medical student training in neurosurgery

Introduction: Neurosurgery sub-internships are a critical portion of the medical student application to neurosurgery residency programs, allowing programs to assess the student's clinical knowledge, interpersonal skills, work ethic, and character. Despite how critical these "auditions" are, many students have limited exposure to neurosurgery and a poor understanding of expectations prior to beginning these sub-internships. Thomas Jefferson University hosted a combined in-person and virtual bootcamp session open to all medical students interested in neurosurgery. In this study, we sought to determine the effectiveness of this inaugural course.

Methods: 304 registered participants were sent a survey assessing their attitudes towards neurosurgery sub-internships, beliefs about their abilities, and their comfort with various neurosurgical skills. Following the bootcamp, all participants were sent a post-survey comprised of the same questions. Mean responses to pre- and post-session survey questions were recorded based on graduating year and by medical school type (recorded as US allopathic, US osteopathic, or foreign degree/IMG). Differences in means between pre- and post-survey responses were analyzed using the Student’s T-test, and p-values less than 0.5 were determined to be significant.

Results: US MD, US DO, and IMG attendees demonstrated a significantly increased understanding of the expectations of a Neurosurgery sub-intern (p < 0.001). US MD and IMG students had significantly increased confidence in their ability to succeed as sub-interns (p < 0.001). Regarding procedural confidence, US MD students had increased confidence in craniotomies and cranial plating (p < 0.001). When comparing responses by graduation year, students in the classes of 2024 and 2025 (MS2s and MS3s) demonstrated both significantly increased understanding of expectations and confidence in their ability to succeed ( < 0.001). Our in-person vs. Zoom cohort analysis showed no significant differences in the post-survey means between the two cohorts.

Conclusion : Our bootcamp successfully delineated the expectations of neurosurgery sub-interns and enhanced the attendees' confidence in their abilities. We concluded that a hybrid virtual and in-person format is beneficial and feasible in increasing accessibility to information about Neurosurgery sub-internships.