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68th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)
7th Joint Meeting with the British Neurosurgical Society (SBNS)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

14 - 17 May 2017, Magdeburg

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Out of programme experience in UK neurosurgery trainees – optimising the transition back into clinical practice

Meeting Abstract

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  • Ruth-Mary Desouza - King’s College Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom
  • Meriem Amarouche - King’s College Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom
  • Beverley Cheserem - King’s College Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom
  • Jordan Lam - King’s College Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom
  • Christos Tolias - King’s College Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Society of British Neurological Surgeons. 68. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), 7. Joint Meeting mit der Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS). Magdeburg, 14.-17.05.2017. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2017. DocMO.17.04

doi: 10.3205/17dgnc100, urn:nbn:de:0183-17dgnc1008

Published: June 9, 2017

© 2017 Desouza et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objectives: Out of programme (OOP) experience from training increases the skill pool of the neurosurgical workforce and drives innovation in the specialty. OOP approval criteria are well defined but transition back to clinical work can be challenging with little data published on perspectives of OOP neurosurgical trainees on their experience.

Methods: We undertook an online anonymised survey of neurosurgery doctors in the UK to understand factors influencing transition from OOP back to clinical work.

Results: Out of 70 respondents, 7 are currently on OOP and 26 completed OOP. OOP was most commonly taken at registrar level (28/32), used for research (27/32) and motivated by the aspiration of an academic neurosurgery career (18/32). All current OOP respondents have established funding, versus (10/25) of past OOP trainees. 2/7 of current OOP respondents have a formal return to work plan versus 5/25 of past OOP trainees. Post OOP, 10/25 reported deterioration of surgical skills. 21/25 have applied the skills learned during OOP to their clinical practice

Conclusions: Skills learned during OOP are relevant and transferable in the clinical environment but mainly limited to research with management and education OOP under-represented. Deterioration of surgical skills is a concern. Formal return to work plans are becoming more commonplace but require refinement and tailoring to individual training requirement in order to optimise an effective return to clinical work