Introduction:

One of the great challenges of a medical school curriculum is to offer training in basic surgical techniques, which allows graduates to develop competences to take care of simple cases presented in the primary care level of SUS. In order to approach the problem of the technical-surgical qualification of medical students and taking advantage of the interest raised by students’ leagues, a surgical care project directed at patients with inguinal hernia was proposed and carried out, based on the students’ academic leagues. The aim of this study is to disclose and discuss the results and the academic experience learned from a students’ league in surgical learning.

Methods:

This report encompasses the three-year experience of an academic league aiming to approach the problem of the technical-surgical qualification of medical students and which takes advantage of the academic leagues among undergraduate medical students. The participants comprised one general surgery professor, one anesthesiologist, and undergraduate medical students interested in the surgical clinic, from the School of Medicine, University of Pernambuco, Recife (PE), Brazil.

Results:

Twenty-four students were included. Ninety-six patients were submitted to surgery. Two seminars with nine lectures and one workshop on surgical skills were held. One paper entitled “League of Inguinal Hernia Surgery” was presented. We did not observe hernia recurrences; the surgical complications were minimum and small in number. The students showed fast development of surgical, interpersonal, and communication skills. However, this education model included a small number of students and offered heavy competition to the general surgery residents in their first year at the University Hospital.

Conclusion:

The academic league in surgery allows a rich pedagogical experience, offering the opportunity for human and technical qualification. However, the proposed model has limitations. In our opinion, it does not represent a solution for the flaws and omissions observed in the school’s curricular grid.

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