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Surgeons Scope Magazine - July 2022
A Higher Calling
RCSI PROVIDES LATER CAREER SURGEONS WITH OPPORTUNITIES TO GET INVOLVED IN COLLEGE LIFE
RCSI is committed to supporting surgeons at every stage on their surgical pathway. We value our relationships with our senior surgical leaders who are stepping back from a fulltime career or retiring from clinical practice, and we want to ensure that we retain their expertise. There are many opportunities for our highly experienced, later career surgeons to contribute significantly to the overall governance, leadership and operational effectiveness of the College, and to take up mentoring opportunities, make contributions to publications, and speak at webinars and events nationally and internationally.
If you belong to this late career cohort, we encourage you to explore the opportunities to become involved and actively participate in College life through various boards, committees, publications, events and other initiatives. Many surgeons have found it to be personally and professionally rewarding. RCSI is always grateful for the knowledge and experience that later career surgeons can bring to many aspects of College life.
RCSI COUNCIL
The governing body of RCSI is the RCSI Council, which is composed of 21 surgeons who are Fellows of the College and are elected by the College’s Fellowship and Membership community. Council delegates a number of its main functions to various boards and committees, which provide many opportunities for Fellows to actively contribute to RCSI’s public engagement and advocacy initiatives.
How to get involved:
Council election takes place every two years and Fellows in Good Standing are strongly encouraged to put themselves forward. Voting for Council is open to all Fellows and Members in Good Standing and voting takes place at the beginning of June. The next opportunity for election to Council will be in June 2024.
The time commitment:
This is a voluntary commitment and Council meets once per month during the year with the meetings chaired by RCSI’s President.
OTHER COMMITTEES AND ROLES
Council delegates a number of its main functions to various boards and committees. The significant activities of these boards and committees are reported to Council on a regular basis. These opportunities include:
• Representation on joint surgical training committees (JSCT, JCIE etc.) Input on the standards, policies, regulations and professional conduct of the Specialty Fellowship Examinations.
• Surgical Speciality Advisor (SSA) Contributing towards the development of your specialty/sub-specialty
• Training Programme Director (TPD) Contributing towards surgical training
• Northern Ireland Liaison Committee Collaboration on the delivery of surgical care and education in Northern Ireland
Find out more:
All Fellows in Good Standing are eligible to put themselves forward for Council and are contacted directly at the time, to encourage participation. To find out more about applying for Council, contact fellows@rcsi.ie.
RCSI COURT OF EXAMINERS (Ireland or internationally)
RCSI successfully established a Court of Examiners in 2014 to acknowledge the essential contribution made by our Examiners to postgraduate surgical examinations. The Court of Examiners contributes to the development and delivery of postgraduate surgical training examinations.
What does this involve:
This opportunity is available to RCSI Fellows and membership of the Court allows our Fellows to:
• Contribute to the assessment of junior colleagues
• Obtain CPD credits
• Participate in Annual Meeting/Postgraduate Conferring
• Network with colleagues
• Examine in Overseas Centres
Professor Patrick Broe, FRCSI at a Court of Examiners Meeting
The time commitment:
This is a voluntary commitment and the Court meets six times per year. Find out more: To find out more about becoming a Court Member, please contact us at examiners@rcsi.ie or visit: rcsi.ie/coe.
PUBLICATIONS AND EVENTS
The RCSI Fellows and Members office publishes the online Surgical Bulletin newsletter every month which is sent by email to Fellows and Members. Surgeons Scope magazine is published biannually and is available to all Fellows and Members in Good Standing. We welcome contributions to these publications from the Fellows and Members community. There are also opportunities to contribute as panellists on webinars and podcasts, and to speak at Fellows and Members events.
What does this involve:
We want to make sure that our news content and publications are relevant to our audience. With information, insights, opinion and analysis from Fellows and Members, we can ensure the content we offer is up to date for our audience.
The time commitment:
By volunteering on our panel of collaborators, you will contribute to the knowledge base of the RCSI and the time you give to this can be as little or as much as you can make available, depending on your commitments.
Find out more:
We encourage you to put yourself forward for our Contributor Network by contacting us in the Fellows and Members office, catherinejordan@rcsi.com.
MENTORING AND TEACHING
Surgeons approaching retirement have the potential to make very significant contributions to teaching programmes within RCSI. In particular, the combination of clinical knowledge and operative skills accumulated over many years of patient service offers an enormous resource for trainees. The majority of retiring surgeons will have provided many years of mentoring and clinical supervision of trainees and a pathway to provide further teaching opportunities beyond retirement is well established within RCSI.
How to get involved:
Opportunities are always available to teach in the areas of clinical anatomy, basic and advanced surgical skills, complex patient management scenarios and general career advice and trainee supports. RCSI therefore actively seeks expressions of interest from retiring surgeons at this time.
Over the coming years, a more regionalised approach to teaching and skills training including simulation will be developed by RCSI in collaboration with third level institutions across Ireland. This may also attract interest from retiring surgeons who wish to contribute to the education of our future surgical workforce without having to travel to Dublin.
The time commitment:
Teaching opportunities are currently facilitated at the National Surgical Training Centre and generally consist of either one half day or one full day per week commitment. Find out more: Interested surgeons are encouraged to contact either Professor Kevin Barry, Director of National Surgical Training Programmes, kevinbarry@rcsi.ie or surgicalaffairs@rcsi.com.
VOLUNTEERING FOR HUMAN FACTORS IN PATIENT SAFETY
The Human Factors in Patient Safety programme is a mandatory eight-year programme for surgical trainees. Trainees come into the college to attend courses on a variety of topics including teamwork, leadership, communication skills, preventing harm and managing adverse events.
Surgical trainees attend these courses with other disciplines including Emergency Medicine, Ophthalmology, Radiology, and Anaesthesiology.
Each trainee attends 17 days of training over the eight years and their communication skills are assessed in the College at the end of the first two years of training.
Courses are also offered on the Continuous Professional Support Scheme. Teaching methods include high and low fidelity simulation training held in the RCSI simulation centre.
Each course is facilitated by an expert in human behaviour and a clinician.
How to get involved:
There is a perennial need for recently retired surgeons to get involved in this teaching. Trainers are paid the faculty rate from the Department of Surgical Affairs and are requested to attend a Train the Trainer course in advance. This course is a free one-day course which focuses on giving feedback in a simulated training environment.
The time commitment:
Commitment is based on the surgeon’s preferences and availability.
Find out more:
Interested surgeons should contact humanfactors@rcsi.ie. ■
SURGEONS SCOPE / 27
CSI is committed to supporting surgeons at every stage on their surgical pathway. We value our relationships with our senior surgical leaders who are stepping back from a fulltime career or retiring from clinical practice, and we want to ensure that we retain their expertise. There are many opportunities for our highly experienced, later career surgeons to contribute significantly to the overall governance, leadership and operational effectiveness of the College, and to take up mentoring opportunities, make contributions to publications, and speak at webinars and events nationally and internationally.
