A Warwick medical student has organised and run a very successful surgical skills day for her peers.

Finalist Maile Wedgwood is passionate about orthopaedic surgery and research, and earlier in the autumn she presented at the British Orthopaedic Association's Annual Congress. At this event there was a focus on training, both around inspiring new recruits and retaining trainees, which encouraged Maile to think about how surgical education could be developed earlier on in medical training.

She says: “I decided I wanted to run a Basic Surgical Skills Day at Warwick. I’ve made many connections throughout my time at WMS, which allowed me to source all of the fabulous educators who kindly gave up their free time to teach the students for the day. The sponsors who I had befriended through the conference and other connections also kindly supported this event by providing all of the equipment without any charge, and providing refreshments for the faculty members. Patrick McSwiggan (a second year Warwick medical student), who I had worked in theatres before, assisted me with some of the administrative tasks."

The event took place on 12 November with a mix of year 2 and 3 students. During the day, six stations were set up, focused on drill and plating, instrument handling, suturing (double session), wound management, and knot tying. Students were split into small groups of up to seven and spent an hour on each station.

Maile says: “At every station, students had their own kit and were directly supervised by experts in the field. Professor Hardwicke led the suturing station, demonstrating a variety of techniques and discussing theories behind them. Thanks to sponsor Ethicon, each student had their own instruments, suture pads and sutures.

“Theatre practitioners from Warwick Hospital brought two sets of instruments: one for orthopaedics and another for ENT. They discussed various theatre etiquettes, such as how to glove and gown correctly, and gave students the opportunity to be curious, see and handle the instruments. Orthopaedic surgeons Mr Emara and Ms Gibbs guided a session where students were able to practise lag screws and plating. Sponsor Depuy provided four sets of drills for this.

“And general surgeon Mr Vangelis taught students a variety of knot tying skills. Sponsor Ethicon provided the tie boards for this session and Convatec provided a multitude of information packs, dressings and guidance on how wounds should be managed, providing insight into the importance of patient management beyond the surgery itself.”

Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive, with all those completing the survey saying that the session had improved their preparedness and confidence for upcoming surgical placements. 22 out of 27 described themselves as being more interested in surgery following the session. Comments on the feedback form praised the passionate teaching staff and engaging activities.

Maile says: “I was delighted with how the day went, and it was great to see participants feeling more confident about their skills afterwards. I hope to build a case to run a larger event in future to demonstrate the positive impact of teaching basic skills. Thank you to everyone who gave up their time to volunteer on the day, to all the sponsors for donating equipment and to Patrick for helping me to organise the day."