Surgical skills are traditionally taught and learnt in the operating rooms and the emergency wards. However, with today’s emphasis on patient safety, reducing errors and decreasing operating time, it is sometimes difficult to take a learner through the steps of a procedure and then performing a procedure. The Surgical Skills Centre provides a controlled environment where these skills can be taught, learnt and practised before being actually performed on patients, minimising errors and thus improving the quality of patient care. It was with this aim that the Surgical Skills Centre was formally set up at the SDM College of Medical Sciences and Hospital. Training is conducted by sessions on mannequins, animal tissues and simulators, combined with instructional audio-visual tools.
Objective
The objective of the Surgical Skills Centre is to train undergraduate students, interns, postgraduate residents and doctors, and help them in acquiring the fundamental technical skills required to perform basic and advanced surgical procedures. In times to come, it is envisioned to develop the facility into a regional training centre to impart training to students and surgical fraternity from other institutes.
Equipment
The Surgical Skills Centre has a dedicated area in the college building which includes a wet lab, a dry lab, and an audio-visual room with a separate storage area. The centre has fully functional operating microscopes, laparoscopic endo-trainers, mannequins for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, simulators for suturing, fracture fixation, bladder catheterisation, gynaecological examination, gastrointestinal suturing, urological procedures, vascular anastomosis, cataract surgery and a variety of educational models.
Training
Presently the Surgical Skills Centre conducts regular training sessions for interns and postgraduate students.
The facilities at the centre are presently being utilised by
a) | Department of Anaesthesiology |
b) | Department of ENT |
c) | Department of Gynaecology |
d) | Department of Ophthalmology |
e) | Department of Orthopaedics |
f) | Department of Plastic and Micro-vascular Surgery |
g) | Department of Surgery |