S2964 Unique Medical Student Workshops to Provide Early Career Exposure in Gastroenterology/Hepatology: A Multi-Year Experience

Introduction: Medical students have limited knowledge of subspecialties and procedures within Gastroenterology (GI)/Hepatology (Hep). Providing early exposure can enable timely exploration of interest in the field. We crafted an interactive workshop with the aim of broadening medical students' understanding of the diverse career paths within GI/Hep. Methods: The event was advertised via email to all medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Workshops were conducted in March 2024 and 2025. They began with a panel discussion involving 7 institutional GI/Hep faculty with diverse careers including advanced endoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease, motility, hepatology and bench research. We then offered hands-on stations covering common GI/Hep procedures including endoscopy and paracentesis simulation, capsule endoscopy and esophageal manometry. Pre- and post- surveys were used to assess participants’ understanding of the scope of GI/Hep. Results: Approximately 600 students were invited, of which 49 students attended the 2 workshops (30 & 19 for years 1 and 2 respectively). Of this pooled cohort, 32 (65%) and 30 (61%) students completed the pre- and post-survey respectively. Fifty-six percent of participants reported a lack of prior exposure to GI/Hep outside the classroom and 81% reported interest in having a procedural element to their career. The average familiarity with different domains of GI/Hep across all domains collectively significantly improved after the session (P < 0.001). There was also a shift toward increasing familiarity with the GI/Hep training pathway. Student comments were overwhelmingly positive and 86% of students reported that they were extremely satisfied with the event, while 80% reported their perception of the field had changed because of the workshop. Participant interest in pursuing a GI/Hep career was significantly increased from 47% to 67% of students indicating moderate to considerable interest (P = 0.008). Conclusion: Our results are limited by the relatively small numbers but nonetheless provide proof of concept that such workshops strongly augment students’ pre-clinical exposures and understanding of a unique specialty field like GI/Hep. Our future work will focus on exploring strategies to maximize students' attendance and assess the long-term impact.