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Dominic Pang: CST8 Vascular Trainee in the North East; VSSB Trainee Representative

The future of a specialty relies on the quality of young talent it attracts. Unlike larger surgical specialties, vascular surgery is a relatively small discipline. As such, attracting trainees into the specialty and retaining them becomes an even more challenging task.

The Vascular Surgery Specialty Board (VSSB) recognises the importance of promoting the field to medical students and doctors in training to safeguard our future workforce. In collaboration with the College, the Rouleaux Club and pharmaceutical company Terumo Aortic, we ran a course at two venues this year to showcase the best of vascular surgery to attract students and junior doctors early on in their careers.

Vascular vision

The course, entitled So You Want to be a Vascular Surgeon?, ran successfully in both College sites in Birmingham and Edinburgh. It involved interesting talks by vascular consultants and trainees about their career journey, an overview of vascular surgery, group discussions on vascular diseases and simulating core vascular surgical skills, such as arterial-patch anastomosis and endovascular simulation.

The course offered a high tutor-to-participant ratio to provide delegates with the best experience of vascular surgery.

To further encourage trainees into the specialty, Terumo Aortic provided an educational grant to support interested delegates. The day included a mini competition to assess the technical ability and aptitude of participants.

Both courses were well attended. Despite the current junior doctors’ strikes, it was heartening to see our junior doctors and medical students remain positive and invested in their own future in surgery.

Special thanks to the vascular consultants – Andrew Tambyraja, Russell Jamieson and Andrew Garnham – and many vascular trainees in taking time out of their own weekend to inspire. Their contributions made the day a successful and memorable experience for the participants. Thanks to Terumo Aortic for being invested in the education of future surgeons through provision of the grant and supporting the course.

“Most delegates reported considering vascular surgery as a career option”

The delegates enjoyed the course and gave unanimous positive feedback. The success of the day was recognised by most attendees reporting seriously considering vascular surgery as a career option in the future.

The mini competition was received with great enthusiasm, with all participants doing their best to demonstrate their surgical skills. Medical students Mathangi Devindran from University of Glasgow, Edward Staniforth from University of Oxford and Nesta Baxter from University of Newcastle displayed excellent surgical abilities to win the competition. They were awarded a bursary to further develop their interest in vascular surgery. Hopefully this will give them the jump start they need in their careers in the specialty.

Looking to the future

It has been a pleasure to have organised the courses in partnership with RCSEd staff. I enjoyed the opportunity to share experiences of my own career journey to the next generation. As I looked back through my own surgical career, it would have been invaluable to have had spoken to someone about the expectations and challenges of a career in vascular surgery. After all, we are all standing on the shoulders of giants.

The VSSB and Rouleaux Club intend to continue to encourage young doctors developing a career in vascular surgery. So for those who have missed out, look out for future course dates this year.