WS02P NURTURING OF SURGICAL CAREERS BY THE WELLINGTON SURGICAL INTEREST CLUB

Abstract

The Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has recently introduced the new Surgical Education and Training (SET) program. The purpose of this was, in part, to help address the anticipated shortage of surgeons in the future, by streamlining the surgical training program. The formation of the Wellington Surgical Interest Club, a student‐led initiative, had several complementary goals. These included the desire to identify potential candidates for a career in surgery, promote a surgical career to students especially women, help students acquire basic surgical skills early, inform students about surgical careers, promote student involvement in surgical research and to create an effective mentorship model during undergraduate and junior surgical training. Since its inception, WSIC has organised clinical skills workshops, didactic tutorials and information evenings on the SET scheme, the role of women in surgery and research opportunities in surgery, with the help of seed funding from the Department of Surgery and Anaesthesia at the Wellington Clinical School of Medicine. WSIC has also started to compile a database of potential surgical electives abroad and is running a research project on clinical skills exposure and career choices for clinical students. The strengths of WSIC are its goals which are similar to those of the RACS with regard to promoting surgery as a career option, its easy reproducibility at other medical institutions, its ability to focus on issues of relevance to both students and junior doctors, and being a bridging solution at a time when early exposure to surgical specialties is both desired and necessary.