Dr Tom Roberts
Foundation doctor Thomas Roberts has committed himself to a training programme to improve students’ understanding of surgery.
Tom, who graduated from Cardiff University and has been at the Trust for just over six months, has a particular interest in surgery and wants to inspire younger students to gain an insight into this speciality so they become more confident to undertake surgical skills.
Tom said: “I worked alongside friends from university who are Foundation doctors at Trusts in Manchester, London, Bristol and Aintree.
“We all have an interest in surgical careers and together we have come up with a programme to deliver to younger students in our Trusts to give them an insight to surgery.
“In my 4th year as a medical student I found there was no exposure to surgical cases in preparation for OSCE examinations. Teaching can be much more medical rather than surgical focused.
“This programme we have put together will be helpful to the students in our Trusts and give them an insight to managing plans and cases. The programme is mainly aimed at 4th year students, and is open to 5th years too.
“The students already have a surgical teaching programme which is more of a general overview and doesn’t cover specific cases.
“Our programme is formatted to go through scenarios which are relatable to cases which can occur during OSCE examinations. We are giving the students helpful tips to improve their knowledge for the OSCE and written exams.
“My colleagues and I are representing our different Trusts and we are collaborating our presentations to share the programme to relevant students in the different Trusts.
“The students will soon be completing their normal surgical teaching schedule and this is when we will be setting up our surgical teaching programme. The programme needs to be quality checked, but we plan to run our session for about 6-7 weeks leading up to the students’ LOCAS examinations.
“We want to get teachers involved to give a true insight into surgical careers. We will be delivering the course ourselves to the students and we will be looking to develop the course based on their feedback.
“I am particularly interested in teaching methods because I like interactive ways of teaching which are engaging and get people involved.
“Hopefully it will keep running in different hospitals.’’