The Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences

The role of the Education Department is to provide surgical teaching for 4th and 6th year medical students (1st and 3rd year clinical), support for post graduate education, and a focal point for surgical training within the University of Oxford.  These can be categorised under the following headings:

Undergraduate

Support for the Clinical Anatomy Course, organised by Professor John Morris.

Clinical

Patient Doctor II course as an introduction to Year 4 studies, organised by Helena McNally.

Year4

160 4th year students are attached to surgical "firms" from January to June each year.  They are split into four six week blocks, during which time they will cover two different surgical specialties (Vascular, Breast/Endocrine, Colorectal, HPB, Oesophagogastric, Urology or Plastics).  The Education Department are responsible for the delivery of the core curriculum including practical skills teaching, theatre scrubbing and etiquette, and the allocation of personal tutors.  Assessments are held at the end of the 4th year course and consist of an OSCE and written paper.  Students are also required to supply a 3000 word case study and a satisfactory tutor report.

Year 4 Homepage

Threads (year 4)

The "Threads Course" runs in harmony with the year 4 attachments and over two weeks covers a wide range of complimentary skills to the clinical teaching.  These include Communication Skills and Ethics and are organised by Carolyn Cook in the Medical School  Surgery run four half day sessions on Lower GI Oncology, Upper GI/Breast Oncology, Patient Safety Seminar and Evidence Based Surgical Practice, each of these sessions consist of an introductory tutorial followed by group discussion of case studies.

Special Study Modules (Year 4)

Cardiothoracic Surgery, organised by David Taggart.
Transplant, organised by David Hughes.
Paediatric Surgery, organised by Paul Johnson.

Year6

160 6th year students are attached to Surgery from June to December each year in four blocks of five weeks.  They will cover different surgical specialties to year 4 (District General Hospital attachments are also taken into account).  Following their surgical course they will undertake a long case assessment with a consultant to ensure they have reached the necessary standard to sit the Second BM Final Examination.  The department is heavily involved in the planning, organisation and delivery of this prestigious examination.

Patient/Doctor Course I

As part of the PPDI course, run at the end of year 6, surgery are responsible for the organisation of CCrISP (Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient) teaching.

Special Study Modules (Year 6)

Surgical SSMs in year 6 includes:

• Out of Hours, This gives students the opportunity to experience life on the wards outside of normal working hours (2 weeks)

• Clerkship , The Clerkship SSM allows students to shadow a surgical consultant in order to gain early experience of the role of an F1 doctor (2 weeks)

• Cardiovascular , This newly introduced module aims to give students experience of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Vascular Surgery including stroke prevention and will be run by Dr Saul Myerson

Shadowing

All Oxford students who have been offered an F1 post within surgery will be given the opportunity to "shadow" the current postholder to give them a deeper understanding of their new role and to make the transition from student to junior doctor smoother.

Postgraduate

Ashok Handa is the Deputy Director of the Oxford School of Surgery. The Education Department work closely with the School of Surgery and are responsible for the organisation of the CT1 interviews each year.

Foundation Training is provided by the Post Graduate Centre, supervised by Chantelle Vermenitch.

• Foundation School
• Foundation Programme homepage

Grand Rounds

These are held on Friday mornings between 8.00am and 9.00am and give each specialty the opportunity to present interesting and unusual cases to colleagues.

Other Teaching

Work Experience

The department also offers work experience to students currently studying for AS or A Levels who may wish to pursue a career in surgery.

Elective Students

Elective students from around the world are accepted into the department on 4 to 8 week attachments, these are administered by the Education Department although we cannot accept direct applications.  All requests for elective placements must go through the Medical School Office. Medical School Elective Programme

People

Teaching Personnel

Director of Education: Mr Ashok Handa
Surgical Course Administrator: Mrs Lesley Gosden
Assistant Surgical Course Administrator: Mrs Jackie Heap

Honorary Lecturers:
Bettina Leiske

Clinical Lecturers:
Shazhad Ashraf
Richard Bryant
Dominic Furniss
Tom Leslie
Rob McCormick
Peng Tan
Ben Turney
Gerard Walls