Scottish Surgical Boot Camp: an induction to a community of practice

Introduction A reduction in hours of “apprentice style” training, has led to increased interest in alternative pedagogic paradigms. Intensive “Boot Camps” have been found to accelerate the acquisition of key surgical skills.1 A 4 day residential Scottish Surgical Boot Camp in the Inverness Clinical Skills Centre is now adopted by 2 Royal Colleges and recommended for 1st year Core Surgical Trainees in Scotland. It is simulation-rich and includes technical and non-technical skills, e.g. wet labs, simulated ward rounds, etc. Evaluation of other Boot Camp models have been from the quantitative perspective of efficacy of training, usually limited to Kirkpatrick levels 1 and 2. We take a qualitative perspective to explore the development and delivery of this Boot Camp.

Method Grounded in social constructivism and consistent with the theoretical lens of cultural-historical activity theory, we used a rapid ethnographic approach involving observations, semi-structured formal interviews with faculty and field interviews with students and faculty to understand the relationships and processes of the SSBC.