Principles of teaching in a structured training programme, the rotations, and the surgical training plan

The present paper is divided into two parts. In the first part it summarises the essentials of transfer of knowledge and personality from trainer to trainee. The training capacity of a programme should be identified first since the number of residents in training has implications on the structure of the programme. The capacity is limited by the number of surgical "resident cases", which should at least amount to 70 per year and resident. For the future, more emphasis should be laid on the acquirement of methods of self-teaching and continuous self-education, in order to provide the trainees with the ability to cope with changes during their later career more easily. In part two the organisation of rotations as well as the structured surgical training plan are discussed. Teaching can be organised either as a gradual exposure to more and more complex procedures or as a sequence of speciality rotations. Structured teaching of theoretical contents should accompany practical teaching and in academic programmes a scientific rotation should be integrated. The ongoing subspecialisation is currently exceeding the limits of complete coverage during a six-year-programme.