There are several courses and workshops designed for medical students considering a career in surgery:
- RCS Surgical Skills for Students course. This teaches basic techniques such as gowning and gloving, suturing and knot tying, allowing you to feel more confident if you are able to scrub and assist in theatre.
- The RCS also runs a careers session for medical students considering surgery. These are held in London twice a year and includes talks from consultants and trainee and well as some practical skills.
There may be opportunities to get involved with research or audit whilst on your surgical rotation. Not only will this teach you valuable skills which you can build on for the rest of your career, you may be able to submit your work to a conference for presentation. This will look fantastic on your CV when applying for surgical posts and demonstrates an early commitment to a career in surgery. Here are a few tips for getting you started:
- Have you noticed aspects of the department that you think may not be working as well as they could be? If so, can you think of a way that they may be improved? There may be the option to do a department audit.
- Talk to one of the registrars or consultant on the team. There may be projects on-going that you could help with, for example data collection.
- Join a student research collaborative. Student Audit and Research in Surgery (STARSurg) collaborative is a national, student-led audit and research network with representation from medical schools across the UK and Ireland.Any medical student or junior doctor can attend their educational meetings or participate in the annual STARSurg audit or research project.