The Ideal Attributes of a “Day one” Surgical Trainee

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland are responsible for selecting the doctors who are eligible to train to become surgeons each year. This is a competitive process involving testing and an interview process. Currently, there’s no single agreed-upon list of what makes an ideal surgical trainee. Research often looks at just one part of the picture, like technical skills or decision-making, without considering the whole person. The aim of this project is to define those set of attributes observed in competent and safe junior surgical trainees who are at the beginning of their surgical training in Ireland. By defining these attributes by involving all relevant stakeholders, we will inform all future changes to the selection process.

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI): 

We as a research group would like PPI because, this project identifies the attributes we want to see in our junior/trainee surgeons. As patients who are users of surgical services, we believe that you have a unique understanding and insight into what attributes or characteristics you believe a surgeon, and in particular a trainee surgeon should have. The perspective you have will be a unique one that to date has not been looked at in a surgical context and therefore we believe this to be hugely important. It will also help to shape the future of how the RCSI selects its surgeons in training. 

 What will PPI contributors do?: 

We hope to conduct semi-structured interviews with patients to delve deeper into what these characteristics are. We have a set of questions developed to hopefully encourage discussion and to delve into these characteristics, however they are aimed at a medical/nursing audience who have intimate knowledge of the healthcare system.  

As such, what we propose would be to possibly meet online, in a 1:1 context with several PPI contributors to discuss their opinions on these questions and ways to modify them to make them more accessible to a patient. 

Secondly, once the semi-structured interviews are completed. We will distribute a Delphi style questionnaire to stakeholders, and we would like PPI input to make sure that this is also accessible to a patient group. We again, propose that this be done in an online 1:1 context. There will be no preparation required. 

We aim to have the interviews completed by the middle of August and the Delphi questionnaire to be completed by the start of September.  This project has received ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee in RCSI. 

Who can take part? 

Anyone who has been a patient in a surgical service nationwide receiving some form of surgical care, from outpatient to minor procedure to daycase to more substantial inpatient care. This could be both in the context of elective or emergency care.  No previous PPI experience required, we just really value your opinion and input into this topic.  

PPI contributors will be paid €30 oneforall voucher per hour.