The erosion of plastic surgery from UK medical school curricula: A cross-sectional current-state analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Plastic surgery, as a specialty, faces a crisis of representation within UK medical school curricula. Several studies posit this, with some regarding it as one of the most poorly taught specialties within the curricula. Despite this, research examining medical students' curricular exposure to plastic surgery in the UK remains limited. METHOD: The authors developed a national plastic surgery teaching programme, delivered April-June 2023. Data regarding plastic surgery inclusion within the medical school curricula of participants, as well as teaching programme efficacy, was collected anonymously via follow-up questionnaires. RESULTS: The programme logged 228 attendances. Overall, 128 unique questionnaire responses were collected from 109 individuals, representing 28 different UK medical schools. The responses indicated that 53.3% of UK medical school attendees had not received any plastic surgery lectures or seminars by the time of graduation; a further 20.0% reported having received just one. Moreover, 97.6% of UK-based medical students perceived inadequate exposure to plastic surgery within their curriculum, which was significantly more than their non-UK counterparts (p=0.001). Pre- to post-webinar topic knowledge increased by 82.6% (p<0.001) and 100% of the attendees reported improvements in their insight into plastic surgery as a career. CONCLUSION: This study exposes and characterises the lack of plastic surgery teaching currently provided within UK medical school curricula. It highlights the negative repercussions of this on career aspirations, patient referral patterns, specialty misconceptions, competition ratios, and beyond. A webinar teaching programme was found to be an effective, accessible, and engaging means of increasing knowledge of plastic surgery and insight into the specialty as a career.