In early October, the Sydney Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre at Royal North Shore Hospital hosted a two-day Surgical Skills (SURG5031) workshop for 18 students who travelled from as far as Far North Queensland and South Australia.
Surgical Skills (SURG5031) is a University of Sydney post-graduate coursework subject offered by the Discipline of Surgery, with the aim of preparing junior doctors for surgical training.
The subject includes online teaching and assessment over five modules of technical and non-technical skills such as risk assessment, leadership, scholarship, teaching and ethics.
The two-day workshop covers both technical and non-technical skills, with the first day featuring small group discussions with Dr Anthony Glover on preparation for surgical training, medicolegal issues in surgical training with Dr Julian Walter and a communication workshop with Prof Stewart Dunn of the Pam McLean Centre.
Day two covered technical skills with the 18 students having access to over 20 faculty participating from Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Beaches and Concord Hospital.
Highlights of the day included Dr Robert Gates (Plastic Surgery) giving an overview of skin excisions, A/Prof Mark Sywak (Endocrine Surgery) giving an overview of surgical dissection techniques, Dr Vikram Puttaswamy, Dr Sarah Aitken, Dr Mayo Theivendran and Dr Daniel Nguyen (Vascular Surgery) giving an overview of vascular anastomoses and Prof Tom Hugh (Upper GI Surgery) with Dr Matthew Winter (Urology) and Dr Alastair Morris (O&G) giving an overview of laparoscopic surgery.
From the SERT Institute, we would like to thank our great faculty and students for participating in the workshop. More information on the Surgical Skills subject is available at https://sydney.edu.au/content/courses/units-of-study/2020/surg/surg5031.html
