311 The Surgical Modern Apprentice – Preparing Final Year UK Medical Students for Foundation Year 1 Using Targeted Small Group Tutorials During an Apprenticeship-Style Placement

Aim Apprenticeship-style placements for final year (F0) medical students act as a bridge between the education focused nature of medical school placements and the practical nature of the Foundation Year-1 (FY1) job. We aimed to deliver and evaluate a programme of in-person small group tutorials for F0’s to complement a contemporaneous apprenticeship-style placement in general surgery. Method Four F0's spent eight weeks on placement in general surgery at a UK University teaching hospital. Students were encouraged to undertake ward jobs under supervision and within the constraints of their unregistered status. Alongside this, four interactive, in-person tutorials focusing on the practical aspects of working as a general surgical FY1 were delivered by current surgical FY1’s. Post placement, free-text, anonymous and voluntary feedback was collected from the F0’s. We performed a thematic analysis to understand which aspects of the programme F0’s felt were useful, and what they felt could be improved. Results The following key themes emerged from analysis of the F0’s evaluation of the sessions: 1) Teaching relating to the real working environment 2) Interactive teaching 3) How to prioritise ward tasks 4) How and when to escalate 4) Understanding FY1 work-life balance. Conclusions Supplementing apprenticeship-style placements with targeted small group tutorials can help F0’s appreciate and practice non-technical skills (such as task management and team working) which are key to practicing as an FY1. F0’s benefited from being encouraged to think in the context of the real-world environment of their apprenticeship - this approach should be considered when designing similar surgical apprenticeship teaching programmes.