CSTAR Summer Surgery Course

[misskris]

Hello M1s and M2s,

 

Interested in Surgery and Anesthesia? Read on for information about this year's Interprofessional Summer Surgery Course at Western University. This course is a great hands-on learning experience, good for people interested in anesthesia and surgery, or even those who want to get some practice before clerkship or a summer elective. This year's course will run from June 10-14 2013, will cost $750 (tax deductible tuition), and will be hosted at the Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics Centre in London, Ontario.

 

The course will feature:

- 5 days of hands-on experience and didactic sessions from physicians in the field

- Operating room techniques including sterile fields, suturing, airway management, and much more

- Simulated OR environment applying the acquired skills during the week

- Cadaveric surgery with a surgeon

- Live viewing of a cardiac surgery

 

See our brochure here: http://goo.gl/tkm7O

Sign up is open here: http://www.cvent.com/d/xcqrph and there is information about accommodation on the website as well.

 

Best wishes,

Planning Committee, CSTAR UWO Interprofessional Summer School 2013

[misskris]

PS There are currently 3 spots left

[rmorelan]

oh this is an awesome course - I admit some bias in saying that but it really is an amazing experience.

[ldnk]

I took this last summer and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

[lovestruck]

Sounds very cool! Can students that have been admitted to med school but have not yet done first year still register?

[misskris]

Sounds very cool! Can students that have been admitted to med school but have not yet done first year still register?

 

Yes, but we'd need proof of enrollment/acceptance which you can email us. PM me for more info.

[shady]

I'm doing my convocation on June 11

[A-Stark]

I wouldn't feel too upset about it. The course is expensive, and while it sounds fun (albeit aimed at nursing students...), you're not going to be lacking for time spent in the OR in clerkship or even on pre-clerkship electives.

[misskris]

albeit aimed at nursing students....

 

Just to clarify while we do have nursing spots (20 meds, 15 nursing students) it's an interprofessional course and in a lot of the simulations the meds take on the doctors roles while the nurses take on the scrub nurse roles, etc. Plus there's something to be said for seeing the other side.

 

Additionally, there's a lot of hands-on suturing, laparoscopic training, catheter/IV time too. A lot of people who have taken it so far have found it to be great prep for clerkship or summer electives.

 

Shady, If it's something you want to do and can't come this year, keep an eye out for next year's course.

[shady]

Shady, If it's something you want to do and can't come this year, keep an eye out for next year's course.

 

Yea will do

[rmorelan]

I wouldn't feel too upset about it. The course is expensive, and while it sounds fun (albeit aimed at nursing students...), you're not going to be lacking for time spent in the OR in clerkship or even on pre-clerkship electives.

 

Interesting it is not that much more than a weeks cost of medical school - and vastly more hands on

 

It was great fun helping with the first offering of the course 4 years ago. I am glad it is still going on!

 

Oh and it is very interprofessional which is actually a strong point and even a medical student it is hard to do something the things you get to do during this week. I am not sure exactly what they are up to in this year but one time I took it I got to remove a kidney using proper approach. It was a lot of fun!

[misskris]

This year's cases on the final day should include a splenectomy, a cholecystectomy and some kind of vascular surgery.

 

Not to mention all the anesthesia learning too, which I found is pretty lacking in medical school curriculum!

[A-Stark]

Well I am certainly more convinced. I dissected out a cadaveric lung in the anatomy lab my first week of med school, though I cannot claim it was the proper technique with appropriate division along tissue planes and ligation of vessels and bronchi. (Not that I'd have been able to find them in between all the formalin.)

 

I believe it was the left lung and I thought the groove for the aorta was pretty cool.

 

And anesthesia exposure is definitely a big plus.

[misskris]

Not that I'd have been able to find them in between all the formalin.

 

We also use fresh frozen cadavers which is nice, because it's much more life-like and there's no preservative. Everything's the right color and texture for a change.

[rmorelan]

This year's cases on the final day should include a splenectomy, a cholecystectomy and some kind of vascular surgery.

 

Not to mention all the anesthesia learning too, which I found is pretty lacking in medical school curriculum!

 

that is the kind of cool stuff I like to see Seriously that sort of thing is what makes the course so interesting.

 

Of course a top expert surgeon is standing over you when you are doing this and top OR nurses are showing you the ropes as well - I remember doing one hand knot ties in the fresh cadaver to seal of the vessels, actually plotting out the surgery, and getting pointers along the way. It was very intense.

 

If I was designing a med school program I would include a lot more stuff like this. Actually that originally was part of the point - to show a different way of learning in a team and really understand what all the players do.

[A-Stark]

Probably one of the best "wet lab" experiences I had was on an anesthesia elective where I went to a half-day. They'd brought fresh pig hearts and we systematically dissected them, examining the relationships between the valves, septa... it was amazing, and I don't think I'd ever gotten a better appreciation both for the delicate nature of valves themselves and for their common embryological origin. Plus our heart had a PFO.

[rmorelan]

Probably one of the best "wet lab" experiences I had was on an anesthesia elective where I went to a half-day. They'd brought fresh pig hearts and we systematically dissected them, examining the relationships between the valves, septa... it was amazing, and I don't think I'd ever gotten a better appreciation both for the delicate nature of valves themselves and for their common embryological origin. Plus our heart had a PFO.

 

Awesome This course is like that except the heart would still be in the chest. Well we didn't do the heart just because it is a lot of work to get to it - ok, so it is like that but just for the abdo organs and vasculature.

[lovestruck]

Is there a point in attending this before we've done year 1 of medical school? I'd love to go and have the availability/funds...but I wouldn't want to go if I would be unprepared for it and if there is prior knowledge that you require to do well. I'm looking at gen surg in the future (obviously I still have no real basis for this except that in my MSc I did a lot of surgical procedures on my rats and I really enjoyed them and was quite good at them!) so I can see the benefit of an intro, hands-on course like this but would it be better to wait a year?

[misskris]

Is there a point in attending this before we've done year 1 of medical school? I'd love to go and have the availability/funds...but I wouldn't want to go if I would be unprepared for it and if there is prior knowledge that you require to do well. I'm looking at gen surg in the future (obviously I still have no real basis for this except that in my MSc I did a lot of surgical procedures on my rats and I really enjoyed them and was quite good at them!) so I can see the benefit of an intro, hands-on course like this but would it be better to wait a year?

 

I don't think you'd be too unprepared, a lot of what we teach isn't really covered too extensively in medical school, and a lot of it is very hands-on. The only thing I can think of is the last day when we do the hands-on surgical lab is that the surgeons, when directing you on what to do, will use anatomical terms and that might get confusing. I'm not sure what your anatomy backgruond is, but I'm sure if you explained you didn't know the anatomy that would be fine and they'd show you. I know last year I had a GI case before I'd done any GI and the surgeon was very good about explaining what he meant when he referred to the anatomy.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer