The impact of a shadowing program on medical students' interest in plastic surgery

Given the lack of formal education on plastic surgery services during the preclinical years of medical school, many medical students commonly misunderstand the breadth and depth of the field. Shadowing is highly impactful in shaping students' desire to pursue surgery, but the impact of plastic surgery shadowing remains unexplored. The study design utilized an anonymous web-based survey containing questions surrounding prior interest in surgery, race, gender, medical school progress, and clinical versus OR shadowing. All medical students who participated in an ongoing, voluntary plastic surgery shadowing program over a two-year period were invited to complete the survey. Of the 54 students who shadowed during the study period, 43 (79.6%) returned the survey. Students reported an overall greater impact of OR shadowing than clinic shadowing on their interest in plastic surgery, approaching significance (p = 0.0527). On simple and multivariate regression, the number of times a student shadowed in the OR was the only statistically significant predictor of students’ interest in plastic surgery (p = 0.0003). In general, the majority of students reported that their shadowing experience “significantly increased” (24.2%) or “somewhat increased” (45.5%) their interest in pursuing a career in plastic surgery. The impact of shadowing, particularly in the operating room, on students' interest in plastic surgery demonstrates the value of structured shadowing programs. Additionally, given the particularly influential effect of shadowing in the operating room, our results indicate that efforts may benefit most from facilitating student exposure to the hands-on aspects of the field.