686 Emergencies in Plastic Surgery – The Impact of a One-Day Conference on Medical Students’ Confidence

Introduction Plastic surgery emergencies, such as facial trauma, burns, and gunshot wounds, are commonly presenting injuries to the emergency department. However, these topics are rarely part of medical school curriculums and few educational conferences exist on these topics. Hence, we created a novel international medical student conference entitled “Emergencies in Plastic Surgery”. We then evaluated its effectiveness in improving confidence in management of plastic surgery-related emergencies. Method We administered pre- and post-event online questionnaires to delegates evaluating self-reported confidence for Facial Trauma, Gunshot Wounds, Burns, Tendon Repair, Splinting, and Lacerations on a 5-point Likert-scale. Responses were matched before statistical analysis. Results Of the 85 attendees, three quarters responded (76%, n = 65). The conference significantly increased confidence ratings in all topics (p < 0.001). Prior to the conference, Lacerations had the highest confidence scores (2.36 ± 1.19) whereas Facial Trauma scored the lowest (1.79 ± 0.858). Facial Trauma had the greatest improvement in confidence (mean difference = 2.09 ± 0.974), whereas Lacerations yielded the lowest improvement (mean difference 1.21 ± 1.28). Facial Trauma also yielded the greatest mean satisfaction rating (4.68 ± 0.594). Conclusions The conference improved student confidence in all plastic surgery emergencies topics. More complex topics, e.g. facial trauma, yielded the greatest satisfaction and improvement in confidence.