Medic through to national final of surgical skills competition

13 Dec 2011

A fifth-year medical student from The University of Manchester has won the North West heat of a nationwide surgical skills competition run by The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd). Geraldine Klein will now go to the grand final in Edinburgh where she will compete to win a trip to Johnson & Johnson’s skills centre in Hamburg, Germany.

The Lister Surgical Skills Competition has been organised by RCSEd in association with Johnson & Johnson Medical Companies to commemorate the life and contribution of Lord Joseph Lister, 100 years after his death. A former Fellow of RCSEd, Lister was world-renowned for his groundbreaking work in the prevention of wound infection, which contributed greatly to the advancement of surgical standards and led to Lister becoming known as ‘the father of modern surgery’.

The skills competition has brought medical students from across the UK together to demonstrate their surgical skills in a series of heats over the last two months, as they attempted to reach the grand final of the competition, which takes place in Edinburgh on 11 February 2012 as part of the Lister centenary celebrations.

Geraldine and the other regional heat winners are being provided with a travel and accommodation package to come to the College for the final. As the principal sponsor of the Lister centenary celebrations, Johnson & Johnson is offering the prize of a trip to its European Surgical Training Institute in Hamburg for the overall winner, with The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) awarding the runner-up with free student membership until they qualify as a doctor, as well as a £50 voucher for its restaurant.

At the North West heat, 18 students with an interest in pursuing a career in surgery competed in four skills tests: knot tying, suturing, hand washing and laparoscopy. Peter Hutchison was the runner-up, winning a year’s student membership of RSM. All participants received a year’s student affiliation to RCSEd.

The North West heat was run by Mr Jeyaram Srinivasan, who is one of RCSEd’s regional surgical advisers for the area and a consultant plastic surgeon at Royal Preston Hospital.

He said: “The Manchester medical students and the University’s Scalpel Society embraced the regional heat with great enthusiasm. In fact, the students were requesting such skill tests to be run every year – if not more frequently. They demonstrated a very good level of surgical skills – especially in laparoscopic approaches and knot tying skills.

“Though many students performed very well, Geraldine was consistently showing her superior surgical skills and was a worthy winner of this regional heat. The students’ performance was so good that we had to run another event to choose a runner-up – using a tie-breaker test.

“As well as this competition, The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has shown its strong support in linking with the Manchester medical students by collaborating with students’ initiatives like National Research Symposium, International Medical Summer School event and even a Regional Assembly recently. We wish Geraldine best of luck in representing the North West in the final.”

Commenting on her victory and the forthcoming Grand Final of the competition, Geraldine said: “The regional heat was fun more than anything else, but most of all I am looking forward to the final competition in Edinburgh. I am sure this will help my career as there are no other ways to show skills and dexterity at a junior level which, let’s face it, is a huge part of being a good surgeon. I am happy to have the opportunity to compete in the grand final – the Johnson & Johnson Surgical Training Centre in Hamburg must be amazing!”