Bridging the Orthopaedic Education Gap: Implementing a Fracture Conference Curriculum for Medical Students at Institutions Without Affiliated Residency Programs.

BACKGROUND

Access to orthopaedic education varies substantially across institutions, particularly at medical schools without affiliated residency programs. Faculty-supervised, peer-facilitated fracture conference curricula have emerged as a potential solution, yet evidence evaluating their impact remains limited. This study evaluated a structured, faculty-supervised fracture conference curriculum at medical schools without an affiliated orthopaedic department.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was administered to medical students who attended at least 1 session of a 13-module fracture conference curriculum between Fall 2022 and Spring 2026. The survey assessed pre- and postparticipation perceived familiarity across 7 orthopaedic skill domains, interest in orthopaedic surgery, agreement with 6 predefined statements evaluating educational value, and barriers to participation.

RESULTS

Forty-one respondents were included. Respondents reported consistent improvements in perceived familiarity across all 7 domains (all p < 0.001). Agreement with 6 predefined statements evaluating the program's educational value and impact had scores that were uniformly high, with respondents endorsing the low-stakes learning environment and the program's role in audition rotation preparedness. Among 10 respondents who completed an orthopaedic elective or away rotation, 90% rated the curriculum as "Very" or "Extremely" helpful.

CONCLUSION

A structured, faculty-supervised fracture conference curriculum represents a potential approach to improving orthopaedic familiarity, specialty interest, and rotation preparedness among medical students at institutions without affiliated residency programs. This model may offer a low-resource, replicable framework for expanding orthopaedic exposure to students who currently lack access to specialty-specific education and warrants further evaluation through prospective, multi-institutional study.