Providing a specialty trainee teaching programme over long distances

Today's teaching programmes must be interesting, relevant to the surgical curriculum, as defined in the UK by the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (ISCP), and attractive enough to the trainee so that they encourage attendance without compromising operative experience.

Our aim was to achieve the objectives of the ISCP and to provide high-quality teaching to the trainees. We devised a 2-year rolling programme of events to cover the knowledge and skills required for general surgical training for both the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) and Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) examinations. For the trainees unable to attend because of on-call commitments, we developed online course material, creating our own virtual learning environment (VLE). Attendance at training days, website use and exam pass rates were monitored. We surveyed trainees annually to identify whether the teaching was meeting their needs.

There were 100 per cent pass rates for FRCS clinical and viva examinations, with 16 out of the 16 candidates passing on their first attempt and one gold medal awarded.

Our attendance rates show that it is possible to provide well-attended sessions despite modern working patterns. The production of a yearly teaching plan with identified topics and dates allowed trainees to maximise their attendance.