The new intake of surgical trainees in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) began the first ‘Surgical Bootcamp' programme this week. This intensive 40-hour course which is now mandatory for all new surgical trainees was created to immerse surgical trainees in the technical and non-technical skills needed as a surgeon.

Professor Oscar Traynor, Director, National Surgical Training Centre, RCSI said: "At present surgical trainees can lose valuable time in the hospitals learning the basic skills needed to become a surgeon. The ‘Surgical Bootcamp' programme for surgical trainees was designed to accelerate the acquisition of key technical and non-technical skills at the start of a career in Surgery so that valuable hours in hospitals are not lost learning basic training skills."

The ‘Surgical Bootcamp' programme was developed by RCSI based on feedback from consultant surgeons and surgical trainees and is designed to better prepare trainees for their early clinical rotations in surgical training. 58 trainees are currently enrolled on the training programme. Key features of the programme include simulation-rich training methods, skilled faculty, human factors training, surgical techniques, suturing, risk management and critical care.

At present, it can take surgical trainees a long time to learn the basic skills required to become a surgeon such as scrubbing up, tying knots and theatre etiquette as well as non-technical skills such as the management of surgical emergencies, critical care, risk management and clinical decision making. The ‘Surgical Bootcamp' programme is enabling trainees gain valuable hands on experience at the very start of their experience and will enable the trainees to begin operating at a much earlier stage in their training.

At the end of the intensive Surgical Bootcamp programme, the trainees will take part in a skills test competition and the winner will be awarded the ‘Brian Lane' Medal in honour of Brian E. Lane, Surgeon Prosector and a former Consultant General and Gastro-intestinal Surgeon at Beaumont and Connolly Hospitals.