'Per ardua...'Training tomorrow's surgeons using inter alia lessons from aviation

How can we build mentorship in surgeons of the future?

“…When the Greek king, Odysseus, left for the Trojan War, he left his close friend Mentor to raise his son Telemachus into adulthood 5 . The word ‘mentor’ was first described in the English language in 1750 and is currently defined in The Oxford English Dictionary as ‘a person who offers support and guidance to another’ 2,5 . This modern definition can be traced back to a 17th century book entitled Les Aventures de Telemaque by the French writer François Fénelon 5 .…”

“…A mentor helps to develop professional values, attitudes, and the technical and non‐technical skills required to be a competent surgeon. A mentor offers guidance and support when discussing complicated cases or situations 2 . Traditionally, surgical training has been based on the Halstedian apprenticeship model, where personal development occurred passively through role modelling and mentoring provided by senior colleagues 3 .…”

“…Recently, it has become increasingly difficult to initiate or nurture these relationships due not only to changes in career structure and medicine as a whole, but also because of the increasing clinical, academic, educational and managerial demands on the modern surgeon, who may require different mentors for each of these areas 4 . The surgical mentoring model needs to consider shortened length of training, subspecialization, diversified surgical training programmes, and advances in technology and innovation 1,2 …”

Measuring the surgical ‘learning curve’: methods, variables and competency

“…The issue of patient safety was highlighted by the UK General Medical Council Enquiry into the Bristol Paediatric Surgical Unit where concerns were raised about patients being exposed to surgeons in the early phase of the LC . Knowledge about LCs could also enhance surgical training . A surgeon may have to perform a procedure a certain number of times under supervision or in a simulated environment before performing it independently.…”

Surgical skills: Can learning curves be computed from recordings of surgical activities?

“…LCs generally follow a power law, from which it is often said that they conform to "the power law of practice" [34]. As learning curves have been used to evaluate skill acquisition in multiple fields, many researchers started working toward defining it in the medical field [13,15].…”