PARALLEL LIVES Surgeons as athletes at the highly successful Younger Fellows forum

PA R A L L E L L I V E S

Sarah Healy and Nathan Stephens on The Surgeon as an Athlete forum, aimed at connecting and supporting Younger Fellows

n early September the RCSEd

IYounger Fellows (YF) Committee hosted the second YF Residential Forum entitled ‘The Surgeon as an Athlete: Perfecting Peak Performance in your Practice’.

This two-day event was held at

Ashorne Hill in Leamington Spa.

The theme was chosen to parallel the career of a professional athlete given the demands of the surgical profession on our physical and mental health, and the importance of taking care of ourselves to sustain the next 30 or more years of our careers.

We were joined by delegates from regions across the UK and internationally, the forum providing an informal atmosphere for networking and interaction.

We were privileged to be joined by Professor Michael Griffin, then President of the College, who immersed himself in the activities and discussions with great enthusiasm. He was eager to hear our views and concerns, and his participation clearly demonstrated his support for the YF group.

Pala Rajesh, then Vice-President of the College, and Mark Peter, previous Chair of the YF Committee, were also at the event, and it was fantastic to have in attendance Clare McNaught, founding member of the YF Committee and now College Vice-President, who continues to guide and encourage our committee with passion and energy. The course began with an introduction from Nathan Stephens, Chair of the YF Committee. The icebreaker asking people to name their dream location and perfect hobby threw up surprising answers – a

Sarah Healy Consultant ENT H&N Surgeon, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough; YF Co-Chair

Nathan Stephens Consultant Upper GI and General Surgeon, the Royal Liverpool University; Hospital YF Chair College blog may document interpretive surgical art inspired by the Himalayas in coming years!

COACHING AND TEAMWORK We are grateful for the excellent speakers who kindly gave up their time to share their knowledge and expertise with us. Our first speakers were Eilidh Gunn and Emma Howie, who delivered a session on surgical coaching,

gamification and sabermetrics. They are research fellows at the University of Edinburgh, and gave us a fascinating insight into the application of data and technology to improve surgical performance.

We then braved the outdoors for our Crystal Maze challenge, which put teamworking abilities to the test. Four teams did battle using technical skill and ingenuity to win crystals and earn time in the Crystal Dome. It was great to see everyone working together and having fun.

We rounded off the first day with a talk from Professor Griffin, who highlighted the many College activities and his commitment to ‘Making it Better’ for us all.

An evening of food and drink at the venue gave everyone the opportunity to relax and explore themes from the day. It was reassuring to learn that concerns are often shared across the group, and encouraging to see people supporting each other.

PSYCHOLOGY INSIGHT The second day began with a yoga session to reset our minds and bodies. Dr Amanda Martindale, chartered psychologist at the British Psychological Society and senior lecturer in Sport and Performance Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, was Friday’s opening speaker. She has provided support to high-level athletes, having been a member of the Scotland Team support staff at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and prepared athletes for World Championships and the Olympic Games. Her talk showed the parallels between the demands and pressures of a professional sporting event and performing a major surgical case. The resources available to prepare an elite athlete are very different to those in the NHS, but her strategies for psychological preparation and visualisation are transferable to surgical practice.

The pre-lunchtime talk, aptly entitled ‘Preparing for practice: nutrition and diet for the surgeon’, was delivered by Karen Ward from Meraki Nutrition. Ward is a registered nutritionist and nutritional therapist, who designs personalised health plans for professionals to suit all lifestyles.

She acknowledged some of the challenges we face in trying to get healthy food in work and out of hours, and why we reach for sugary snacks to keep us going on long shifts. She gave us some practical solutions and even some recipes for healthy snacks on the go. We then had an enlightening Q&A session to dispel some of the myths around current food trends and diet crazes.

Saydia Razak delivered a talk on working in complex systems, focusing on her research into the development of higher tactical analysis as a tool to break these systems down into manageable tasks. This illustrated a way of developing processes within a medical context. Razak’s expertise is multifaceted; she has a PhD in Healthcare Human Factors and Ergonomics, and a clinical background in mental healthcare.

OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE We closed the forum with a speaker who epitomised our theme. Gary Lambert is a consultant vascular and endovascular surgeon with experience of delivering vascular trauma cover to a Level 1 major trauma centre. He is also an international highperformance sports coach. For the past four years he has coached the England Touch (rugby) Senior Women’s Squad to consecutive unbeaten European Championship gold medals and, in 2019, to the World Cup bronze medal. His talk gave insight into coaching at an elite level, with a focus on guiding the team to achieve a shared goal and the importance of supporting one another.

Lambert’s interest in measuring performance and using data to improve outcomes was thoughtprovoking and echoed the opening talk of the conference. He is a prime example of how leadership skills, ergonomics and high-performance psychology gleaned from the world of professional sport can be applied to clinical practice to optimise our performance as surgeons.

We would like to thank the College for funding the event, and to Professor Griffin and Clare McNaught in particular for their support and participation.

We are grateful to all of the delegates for contributing and making it such a fun and successful couple of days. Finally, the event would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of Una Curran in the College Communications department.

The next YF Residential Forum is in the planning stages for 2024. We encourage you all to get involved.

Clockwise from top left: The teams line up at the start of the Crystal Maze challenge; delegates for the second YF residential forum get down to business; the blue team do battle in the Crystal Dome; Professor Michael Griffin showing us how it’s done, supervised by Pala Rajesh

The resources available to prepare an elite athlete are very different to those in the NHS, but the strategies are transferable

to surgical practice ''

Get involved

The Younger Fellows’ Group is a support network for senior trainees and younger consultants, which also provides feedback to the College Council. More details at bit.ly/YoungerFellows