Future Surgical Education: Principles and Practice

Surgical training programs must continuously adapt to suit the demands of an ever-changing field. Consequently, surgical education methodologies must likewise improve to prepare surgical trainees for autonomy appropriately.

During the medical school surgical clerkship rotation, students are initially introduced to the operating room (OR). The emphasis of instruction transfers from a theoretical basis to a practical one.

Surgical education is a multi-faceted process with both technical and non-technical components. It necessitates introducing new learning and evaluation strategies that can be evaluated for their effectiveness.

In medical school, students are introduced to surgery and taught the fundamentals of surgical practice in the operating room (OR). However, when students reach the operating room as surgical clerkship trainees, the emphasis shifts from didactic core instruction to clinical practice and a more hands-on approach.

The Halstedian paradigm, a training system that has evolved over the last century, requires surgeons to gain proficiency by doing hundreds of procedures on patients. Regrettably, this paradigm is endangered by constraints on trainees' duty hours that limit their ability to acquire necessary experience.

Educators must consider metacognition and provide new tools to mould surgical residents into experts. They must comprehend how to pre-train students, engage in the purposeful practice, and construct mental models.

Surgical education is the process by which a surgeon acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to provide safe and effective surgical care. It is a collaborative endeavour of medical students, residents, and practising physicians. Regulatory agencies, professional associations, and educational institutions create this training's guiding principles.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education now accredits numerous surgical training schools in the United States (ACGME). These highly structured programs emphasize didactic and experiential instruction, with increasing levels of responsibility, finally leading to the development of independent practice and independence.

Excellent educators are competent at conveying compassion and empathy, educating students, and fostering teamwork. These abilities are essential for safe and effective surgery, which also involves a grasp of the surgical patient's situation, the capacity to collaborate with other members of the healthcare team, and the capacity to manage stress.

Utilizing verbal instruction and minor physical actions (supporting or retracting tissues, guiding/repositioning hands/instruments) to facilitate the trainee's skill development, great surgical educators instruct surgical steps and operational theatre behaviour. These strategies allow the educator to meet educational and surgical objectives simultaneously.

Surgical education instruction is a tough endeavour. There are numerous approaches to teaching medical students and residents surgical skills.

Although various unique training approaches have evolved in recent years, classic methods such as didactic lectures, bedside instruction, and practical placements continue to constitute the cornerstone of medical education.

An efficient and effective assessment method is required to enable a competency-based approach to surgical training. This ensures that students receive accurate feedback on their development and learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a rethinking of traditional clinical placements to permit the introduction of innovative, forward-thinking, and practical remote surgical teaching via audio (podcast), audio-visual, and interactive software modules in various modalities outlined in the present review. This is a major step in addressing the difficulties of offering surgical education in the future in an environment where physical simulators are unavailable.

In a world where health care is getting more complex and interdisciplinary provider teams are replacing the traditional doctor-nurse-patient interaction, surgical education must change to equip graduates with the necessary skills for their future careers.

In the era of team-based surgical training, surgical educators must comprehend the significance of assessment and how it may assist them in identifying student requirements and determining the most effective learning tactics. A dedication to research, innovation, and development is necessary to achieve these objectives.

Using an augmented reality simulation technology, we wanted to examine the efficacy of a unique way of teaching and assessing operative surgical skills (AOSS). A learner's position on the surgical learning curve may define the link between competency and speed for a given activity. A learner's performance is better matched to solo rehearsal versus guided teaching when learning AOSS.