Royal College of Surgeons of England
|
| Address: |
The Royal
College of Surgeons of England
Raven Department of Education
35–43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London, WC2A 3PE |
| Telephone
Number: |
020 7869
6303 or 020 7869 6305 |
| Fax Number: |
020 7869
6306 |
| Website: |
www.rcseng.ac.uk/international |
|
Contact Details
The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Raven Department of Education
35–43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London, WC2A 3PE
T: 020 7869 6303 or 020 7869 6305
F: 020 7869 6306
E: international@rcseng.ac.uk
W: www.rcseng.ac.uk/international
Director of International Activities Mr W E G Thomas
Strategic Development Manager/International Co-ordinator Dr
Andrea Kelly
International Marketing Administrator Kate Prestwich
International Activities
The College is recognised as an established international
resource centre. The International Office provides a point of
access for ministries of health and professional and academic
institutions from outside the UK which express an interest in
skills transfer, including:
- The Raven Department of Education has been active – within
Europe, across the Commonwealth, and worldwide – in a wide range of
activities. In brief, this involves:
- working with reconstruction agencies to support surgical
education in war/disaster zones eg Kosovo, Iraq, Sri Lanka
- working with aid bodies to get basic courses to
developing countries – particularly via the Introduction to
Surgical Skills programme
- exporting a wide range of courses as “know-how
transfer”
- exporting accompanying educational materials
- promoting institutional links to support and develop
local faculty (Training the Trainers)
- franchising courses as national programmes
- hosting inward visits to the College by surgical
institutions from around the world, with associated educational
seminars/conferences
- facilitating information-transfer from other
international bodies involved with curriculum development
The Introduction to Surgical Skills (ISS) programme mentioned
above provides an example of how we are attempting to adopt
innovative approaches. It was launched in 2002 as an adaptation of
Basic Surgical Skills (BSS). The original BSS handbook and video
have been adapted so as to be more widely available as a low-cost
teaching and learning resource; and some additional material from
the SpR Skills in General Surgery course has been added. This is
essentially a publishing project funded by the Commonwealth of
Learning - a body set up by Commonwealth heads of state to assist
developing countries to benefit from distance learning initiatives
and the new technologies.
The ISS teaching resource pack is potentially relevant to a
broad spectrum of health-workers including nurses, rural
practitioners and trainee surgeons – and has proved immensely
popular. It is now in used in over 40 countries, the African
Medical Education and Research Foundation (AMREF) is discussing its
use for CME with various ministries of health in eastern Africa,
and it forms the basis of various outreach programmes for young
surgeons in training in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also being used
across SE Asia, - and in Indonesia alone 1,600 surgical trainees
have been through this programme in the last 4 years!
In 2004 the College was approached by the European
Reconstruction Agency for Kosovo (ERAK) to assist with curriculum
development for young Kosovan surgeons whose training had been
curtailed by war. Essentially there had been near total collapse of
all public services and systems, and hence a need to rebuild from
scratch. ERAK commissioned advice from the College on the use of
educational courses and materials – particularly STEP™, BSS and
Training the Trainers – to provide a context in which the broader
curriculum issues could be addressed. Elsewhere in Eastern Europe
we have been active via a link with the university hospital in
Iasi, Romania, where we have provided significant input into the
annual conferences of the Romanian Society of Surgery, and have
also introduced STEP™, BSS, SpR Skills in General Surgery and
Advanced Breast Disease courses. Currently we are involved in
similar “recovery” initiatives for both Iraq and Sri Lanka and are
developing our own capacity to work with surgical communities in
hard-pressed
circumstances.
Key to our approach in all these activities is to build up local
capacity and ownership – by strong institutional links in which
benefits flow both ways.
International Links
The International Office promotes
institutional links between the College and other providers of
surgical education and training in Europe, and around the
world.
Others
Examinations
We can provide recognition of hospital posts
for in-country training and access to the College’s MRCS
examination (where appropriate).
Consultancy
The College also offers:
- advice on the development and delivery of
local curriculum (including assessment systems)
- advice on designing and equipping centres for
teaching surgical skills expertise in developing healthcare policy
for the delivery of surgical services.
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