Core surgical training is the first step towards a career in one of the branches of surgery, bridging the foundation program, and specialty training. Trainees will spend two years preparing to enter their specialty of choice by acquiring basic surgical skills and other competencies, passing the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) examinations and other courses such as Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), whilst building a portfolio to compete with the very best contemporaries for those coveted places.
Wessex is a wonderfully compact region in which to train, with a variety of high quality district general hospital’s and more traditional teaching hospitals, largely within easy commuting range. Trainees who move to the region are invariably impressed by the lifestyle in the sunny South, with its unparalleled leisure facilities, access to London, and international transport links.
Quality of Training
- ARCPs twice a year
- Annual visits from the School of Surgery to Local Education Providers to ensure quality is maintained
- Use of simulation
- Use of Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (ISCP)
- Monthly teaching mapped to the curriculum
- MRCS anatomy teaching at Southampton
- Local MRCS, Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient (CCrISP) and ATLS courses
- Trainees’ Forum
- M27 Colorectal Course
- Management courses run through the Wessex Professional Development Unit
- Wessex Professional Support and Wellbeing Unit (PSW)
What happens when trainees finish Core Surgical Training?
Trainees are prepared for entry into higher specialty training, such as: