This was the 4th year this symposium was run as part of the RCSEd’s outreach programme coordinated by Consultant HPB Surgeon and Deputy Director Regional Networks for RCSEd, Mr Mike Silva.
The symposium aimed to give delegates a ‘hands-on’ experience of a variety of surgical aspects and skills not routinely covered in the current surgical curricular, as well as a to meet faculty from a range of surgical specialties, with a view to promoting career choices in the surgical field.
The symposium was open to senior medical students and foundation trainees from all over the UK - a truly ‘national symposium’. Registration for the event was via the RCSEd for nominal fee of £10 each, which became fully booked rapidly after the tickets were released.
The symposium consisted of brief introductory lectures followed by six one-hour workstations, which included: management of traumatic fractures, ureteroscopic removal of ureteric calculi, laparoscopy simulation and competition, suturing and electrocautery on porcine tissue, cardiothoracic surgery for penetrating wounds on porcine heart lung blocks, and bowel anastomosis. Each workstation was manned by consultant surgeons and senior surgical trainees acting as instructors. Delegates were provided with one-to-one support from instructors, creating the optimum learning environment for delegates to learn from senior expertise, fulfilling the symposium aims.
A huge thank to the faculty who generously gave up part of their weekend voluntarily, the RCSEd for facilitating events and MedTronic for their sponsorship, Rhiannon Baldwin (President of HCSS) for helping to co-ordinate the event, and of course Mr Mike Silva and Miss Katherine Hurst (RCSEd Trainee Committee member and ACF/ST3), the key course convenors, who put in a huge amount of effort over the last nine months to co-ordinate the event.
Photos were taken throughout the day by the HCSS committee – you can see them on their Facebook page, Instagram, and Twitter.