Objectives: The goal of the VSIG at Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CIMED) is to increase medical student awareness and engagement in the field of vascular surgery. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the type of event and the impact it had on retaining event attendees, increasing interest in vascular surgery, and enhancing students’ knowledge and awareness of vascular surgery
Methods: The VSIG at CIMED held four interest group meetings throughout the fall semester. The four events included hosting the interest group’s physician mentor, a vascular surgery resident, the program director of the Carle vascular surgery residency program and demo deployments from industry representatives. Before each event, students were asked to fill out a form inquiring about their interest and knowledge of the field of vascular surgery on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the lowest interest and knowledge. After each event, students were again asked to fill out a form which included the same questions regarding their interest and knowledge of the vascular surgery field.
Results: Post-event surveys showed that students had a high interest in vascular surgery (Fig 1). The average level of interest stayed consistent with minor fluctuations before and after the events. Of note, the event with the program director had the largest increase from 5.91 to 7.53. Regarding interest in vascular surgery, each event had a high standard deviation; this could be due to students who are both changing their opinions and solidifying their thoughts about Vascular Surgery as a career choice and is a desirable outcome.
Attendance at these events was very high, averaging between 20-30 students when the school’s average class size was 50. One limitation was the industry event where attendance was limited (n=20) which affected attendance results. Event data shows a substantial increase in knowledge of Vascular Surgery as a field after each event (Fig 2).
Conclusions: The goal of this study was to explore the effectiveness of vascular surgery interest groups at educating and exposing vascular surgery to medical students. Event responses demonstrate that VSIGs are critical to educating medical students about vascular surgery and promoting interest in the field. The future of this study will be to utilize this data to develop a series of events with maximum impact for increasing exposure and awareness of vascular surgery.
