Is Theatre Time a Good Use Of Your Time as a Junior Doctor?

If you are an aspiring surgeon then this might seem like a bit of an odd question. You’re probably thinking “Well of course it’s a good use of my time”. Now, I can understand from a portfolio building perspective why one would want to increase their caseload in order to be more competitive when applying for core surgical training. I, myself, have spent hours “assisting” consultants in theatre but what does it really mean to assist?

Assisting a surgeon in theatre often means holding and manipulating a camera, putting tension on a suture, holding a retractor and occasionally closing a wound. However, these relatively simple tasks do very little to build advanced kinaesthetic skills.

At JDSG, we believe that surgical simulation is a much better use of ones time in order to develop advanced kinaesthetic surgical skills that can translate to the operative realm. For example, our anastomosis masterclass series aims to equip juniors with the tactile skills to perform consistent high-quality anastomoses. This skill has applications across a broad range of surgical specialities.

As a junior doctor, no matter how many times you assist in theatre, you’d likely never develop the necessary skills to perform a vascular anastomosis. This creates a training inequality in the NHS and a stunting of skill acquisition. With our high-fidelity simulation workshops , we aim to promote surgical skill acquisition using evidence-based performance metrics. So the next time you are assisting in theatre, it might be worth asking, “Am I becoming a better surgeon?”. Rather than just making your operative caseload a box-ticking exercise, reflect on what other training needs you have and consider joining us for one of our workshops.