Welcome to Care of the Surgical Patient (CSP).
Teaching and learning for this block will be mainly based in the hospital. Our intention in this block is to give you as much ‘hands-on’ experience as possible and as such we have kept teaching sessions away from the clinical environment to a minimum.
The following information will be provided on induction day
Tutor names – this will be a senior surgeon and an anaesthetistSurgical Logbook including anaesthesia and training assessment form
You are not expected to become an expert on every surgical diagnosis and operative technique in this block. More importantly, be sure that you gain a broad basic introduction to Surgery. You must see enough patients improve your clinical skills with any surgical patient. In particular, you should become competent at:
Taking a history and examining patients with acute abdomenAssessing patients pre-operatively for fitness for surgeryManaging patients post-operatively, e.g. fluid balance etc.Understanding the clinical features and management of common surgical conditions
How to approach the CSP block
You are encouraged to...
Identify the names and bleep numbers of junior staff. Introduce yourself to the team and ask them about ward activities. You will need to find patients for your portfolio and the team will help you to achieve that.
Follow your patients through their hospital stay. Visit them on most days and find out from the team how and why they are managed this way. This will benefit from your consultant discussion during the ward round.
Make yourselves acquainted with your consultants on your first week. Meet with your consultant in the first week and find out what they expect of you.
Do not miss out on emergency admission patients. Find out the rota on your first day. Stick around with the FY1 and offer to clerk in new patients. Don't expect patients to arrive just when you are free, wait for them and tell the on-call staff where you are. Go to a variety of outpatient clinics. There are fairly specialized clinics in vascular, Upper GI, Colorectal, Hepatobiliary, breast, paediatric and transplant. Try to get to at least one of each. Plan ahead, identify a suitable clinic from the consultant’s secretary, Do introduce yourselves at the start of the clinic.
Go to the theatre. Do not waste too much time on repetitive procedures. Surgeons enjoy their theatre sessions, so if you choose not to spend every opportunity in theatre, be tactful and explain how you will otherwise make good use of the time.
Learning outcomes are listed at the end of this module guide and we would expect you to cover most of these topics. You are expected to fill in the topic learning outcomes if and when such topics are covered. It will serve as a useful guide to revision later on. Please be mindful that the list is not exhaustive and you are expected to read other relevant topics as suggested by your clinical teachers.
Although you are assigned to a clinical team of a particular surgical specialty, it is important for you to interact with another clinical team to allow exposure to other surgical specialities. Your local course organiser can help to facilitate this.
Tips for the CSP block
Get to know your teamWhen you are on-call for surgery, the best thing to do is introduce yourself to the on-call team. It's generally best to bleep the FY1 on-call and follow them around.Ask to scrub in if possible – get someone to remind you howIf you are scrubbed in and begin to feel light-headed, it’s best to say something and have time to de-scrub and sit down, drink water, etc. As part of your learning, you will be expected to present a long case for your learning.