Technical Training and Preparation for the Surgical Environment

This course is designed for preclinical students in the School of Medicine interested in acquiring the technical skills and clinical orientation necessary to learn and participate in the surgical environment. Students will begin with scrub training to learn sterile technique prior to participation in the operating room followed by basic surgical techniques (including knot tying, suturing, hand-sewn bowel anastomoses, and laparoscopic skills) to enhance their operating room experiences. In addition, the course will expose students to life as a surgeon. The class requires one to two mandatory operative shadowing experiences with an attending surgeon outside of normal class hours. Opportunities for one-on-one surgical faculty membership will be provided. This course will be held in person. Entry into the course: Second year students (MD, MS2) will get priority, especially those who could not enroll in the course last year and those that plan on declaring a Surgery Scholarly Concentration. 14 students can be accommodated each quarter. Indicate your interest in the course here: https://forms.gle/2CAz4YyC6hwmdUgY9. If selected for the course, you will be emailed a code that will allow you to register for the course on https://explorecourses.stanford.edu. All questions may be directed to Dr. Rachel Jensen r2jensen@stanford.edu. Confirmation of enrollment: If selected, students will be sent an enrollment code a week before classes start. Input the enrollment code when prompted on AXESS.