First touch course—the impact of a nation-wide boot camp on the transition to surgical residency

Surgical residents face numerous challenges and undergo significant changes at the beginning of their residency. Although there are several courses throughout residency, it is difficult to address all of them in a single activity. Boot camps (BC) have been a way for easing this transition period. Our team developed the “First Touch Course” boot camp in 2017 to join all residents of the same year, before they initiate Surgical residency. Since then, 8 editions have been organised (one per year) with the participation of a total of 481 residents. Eighty-four residents have enrolled in the last two editions, mainly from General Surgery, Gynecology and Urology. The present study analysed the 2023 and 2024 editions to evaluate the impact of this BC on residents’ preparedness and confidence to face residency. More than 71% of the participants rated the course as excellent and 100% considered it exceeded their expectations. Almost 100% considered it will have a significant impact and more than 75% felt better prepared to start residency after the course. More than 73% believe that having a laparoscopic simulator will be useful for continuous skills acquisition. This is the first nationwide, multi-speciality boot camp that promotes continuing education, providing each resident with a personal laparoscopy simulator and laparoscopic instruments, allowing for home-based training. This study highlights the importance and impact of this kind of boot camps in preparing residents for the early stages of surgical residency and the impact it may have on basic skills acquisition.