The Core Surgery Training Program at Western University was initially established in 1996 by Dr. Ken Leslie. Over the years, with Dr. Leslie's commitment to Core Surgery, the program evolved and expanded to include residents from nine specialties and has been a major strength of the surgery program at Western. Dr. Leslie continued in his role as Core Surgery Program Director until June 30, 2008 before passing the role over to Dr. Mike Ott.
Dr. Mike Ott was a graduate of the Western University General Surgery Residency Training Program and is currently enrolled in the Masters of Health Profession Education at University of Illinois in Chicago. Dr. Ott is passionate about his role as Core Surgery Program Director and is committed to providing core surgical trainees with an excellent educational experience.
Core surgical training is defined by the RCPSC (1997) as the "initial period of postgraduate training required to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes underlying the basics to the practice of surgery in general and preparatory to further training in a surgical specialty or sub-specialty." The core surgical training period is two years in duration and during the latter half of the second year of training, the majority of core surgical trainees write the mandatory RCPSC Principles of Surgery (POS) examination, which evaluates their attainment of the knowledge-based objectives of core training in surgery.
The Core Surgery Program at Western involves the administration and coordination of clinical rotations for all first and second year surgical trainees, the academic and clinic programs, and evaluation of teaching and learning.
During the first year of surgical resident training, residents participate in the Introduction to Surgery Course which is held in the Canadian Surgical Technologies and Robotics (CSTAR) facility at London Health Sciences Centre – University Hospital from September to March annually for full days on Wednesdays. This innovative course incorporates all seven of the CanMEDs competencies in the curriculum and includes technical skills training, simulation-based training, classroom-based sessions, and ATLS Certification that are lead and taught mainly by surgeons. Initial participant enrollment in this course consisted of four first-year General Surgery residents, however due to the success of the course it expanded to include all first year surgical residents from the programs of Cardiac Surgery, General Surgery, Urology, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery, ENT, Neurosurgery, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and OB/GYN, and by 2007 there were a total of thirty participants in the course annually.
During the 2009-2010 Introduction to Surgery Course, the Core Surgery Director and Coordinator utilized a screencasting tool to capture the Principles of Surgery lectures taught during the Introduction to Surgery Course. These screencasts have been uploaded into the online course management system (WebCT OWL) for both first and second year surgical trainees as a review and learning resource. With the use of these screencasts a second-year online core surgery review course is in the process of being developed and when completed residents will have the flexibility to complete this course from anywhere at anytime during their second-year of core surgery training.
The Western University Core Surgery Program continues to evolve and with the commitment of the Core Surgery Program Director and Coordinator will continue to be a success.
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