The establishment of a surgical interest society for medical students.

With the advent of initiatives by many medical schools to attract students to generalist fields, the curriculum at these institutions has undergone substantial change. In many instances these changes include the abbreviation of exposure to specialty fields such as surgery. Consequently, the exposure of medical students to the surgical discipline and surgeons may be decreased at these institutions. These changes are particularly concerning in light of studies that suggest that these important interactions are the primary influences that lead students to pursue a career in specific fields. It is also interesting to note that these trends in decreasing exposure to surgical fields seem to correlate with recent increases in the number of unfilled categorical residency positions in general surgery. This article focuses on the experiences of a group of students and faculty mentors at the University of Virginia School of Medicine as they set about creating an extracurricular opportunity for students to explore interests in surgical fields. We shall present the thoughts and rationale we used in planning the establishment of our own student surgical interest society, as well as the manner in which we ultimately went about constructing this organization. It is our hope that this information will provide some ideas for the creation of similar societies at other institutions.