the 28 bulletin
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step Sri Rathinam, SCTS Education Secretary
M
y journey with SCTS Education started with small steps and has grown over the last few years. I’m handing it over to capable hands and moving on to a different role. It seems like yesterday that I went for the interview for the SCTS tutor position with lots of ideas and visions. I was very excited seeking new challenges having brought the ESTS meeting to the United Kingdom. The
Tutor role was a remunerated position with The Royal College of Surgeons of England. SCTS decided to bring that role in house as an honorary position in 2013. I was successful and I was advised that I would have a partner to work with; a gentleman called Narain Moorjani, a cardiac surgeon from Papworth Hospital. We had never met before but it has transpired to be a great partnership and working relationship over the years.
SCTS Tutor
Carol Tan, Emma Piotrowski, Sri Rathinam
Narain and I were tasked by the Education secretaries, Mike Lewis and Rajesh Shah, to structure NTN education starting with the Boot Camp which was set up by Trainee representative, David McCormack. We set out to create a portfolio of 12 courses, which were integrated with the curriculum incorporating dry lab, wet labs, live animal operating, exam revision courses, nontechnical skills and professionalism and leadership. We were ambitious in wanting to offer these courses free for the trainees like the Boot Camp of
2012. We approached various companies seeking sponsorship whilst the senior officers felt this was a nonstarter. I still vividly remember the Johnson & Johnson national manager, Ross Campbell, showing interest and in further meetings which we had between Narain, Ross and I to firm up the plan. Ethicon committed to supporting the whole portfolio of the courses. Narain and I created 12 courses including the learning objectives and the programmes and identified keen faculty members with 1:2 trainer/trainee ratio. In the first year, we were the course directors for all the courses and identified keen faculty members to take over as directors. We also worked with The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s education department to advise and support us with educational modalities assessment and quality assurance. To be honest, I felt sustainability and continuing the same level of commitment might not continue after a few years, as more specialties would want to replicate our model of the structured portfolio of simulation courses. Thanks to industry sponsors and partners, the portfolio is stable and if anything, expanding over the years. Thanks to the commitment of the faculty and their motivation and a diligent collection of data and feedback we have generated award-winning abstracts to manuscripts in major peer reviewed journals with more in the pipeline. The role also had its challenges particularly pertaining to professionalism by the delegates and trainees resulting in us writing terms of reference to the trainees attending the SCTS Education courses. We introduced the operative video prize and pursued many industry partners who contributed to the portfolio of courses. As a surgeon who came to the United Kingdom from India, I have always felt the
