Developing a Surgical Simulation Curriculum for the Rwandan Context

Objective: We report on the development and implementation of a surgical simulation curriculum for undergraduate medical students in rural Rwanda. Design: This is a narrative report on the development of scenario and procedure-based content for a junior surgical clerkship simulation curriculum by an interdisciplinary team of simulation specialists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, medical educators, and medical students. Setting: University of Global Health Equity, a new medical school located in Butaro, Rwanda. Participants: Participants in this study consist of simulation and surgical educators, surgeons, anesthesiologists, research fellows and University of Global Health Equity medical students enrolled in the junior surgery clerkship. Results: The simulation training schedule was designed to begin with a 17-session simulation-intensive week, followed by 8 sessions spread over the 11-week clerkship. These sessions combined the use of high-fidelity mannequins with improvised, bench-top surgical simulators like the GlobalSurgBox, and low-cost gelatin-based models to effectively replace resource intensive options. Conclusions: Emphasis on contextualized content generation, low-cost application, and interdisciplinary design of simulation curricula for low-income settings is essential. The impact of this curriculum on students’ knowledge and skill acquisition is being assessed in an ongoing fashion as a substrate for iterative improvement. © 2023 Association of Program Directors in Surgery