CREATING SURGICAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES ON THIEL CADAVERS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC TO CLOSE THE LEARNING GAP
Suzanne Fischer, Nees Marquenie, Inge Vandenbroucke, Nikdokht Rashidian, Isabelle Van Herzeele, Wouter Willaert, Piet Pattyn
BACKGROUND. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only posed enormous challenges for healthcare providers worldwide, but has also disrupted training in procedural specialties. In Belgium,
hospitalization for surgery declined with 66% during the first lockdown. This inevitably resulted in reduced surgical training opportunities in the operating room and cancellation of multiple hands-on surgical courses. The reduction of surgical training opportunities may negatively influence the surgical progress of the trainee, but also poses a risk to the future surgical workforce in Belgium.
OBJECTIVE. The surgical department has developed a training program on Thiel-embalmed human cadavers focusing on technical skills acquisition for surgical trainees in a safe and trainee-oriented environment, in order to minimize the COVID-19 induced learning gap.
METHODS. Thiel cadavers are known to preserve natural colour and consistency of tissues and thus have the potential to cover a range of training applications, closely resembling surgery in patients.
Fourteen surgical trainees were enrolled in our program (1st year (n=3), 2nd year (n=5), 3rd year (n=4), and 6th year (n=2)). Nine days of eight training hours were scheduled between October 2020 and June 2021. Trainings were organised in groups of four learners, guided by two supervisors. One cadaver was available for two trainees. Average training hours were 20h per learner. Clear learning objectives were formulated before the session and often pre-learning was available prior to the course. Trainings were adjusted to the level of the individual trainee. Training courses focussed on laparoscopic gastro- intestinal-, hepatobiliary- and thoracoscopic lung surgery, open vascular procedures and
cardiovascular suturing techniques. After every session, learners completed a feedback questionnaire, evaluating the content of the workshop itself, the quality of teaching by the
supervisors and their own progress. Results will be processed when the course is fully completed by all participants in July 2021 and be presented at the annual meeting.
