gms | German Medical Science

Residents are most of all taught by consultants, who have their own care load and who did not enroll in any program for acquiring teaching skills. Besides, a common definition of a requirements profile is still missing. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to determine the competences that would define the professional profile of a surgical trainer at a European level.

Initially, a revision of different national frameworks was accomplished to determine the current status of surgical training in the partner countries. Based on the framework of the “12 roles of a medical teacher”, a questionnaire was developed and distributed among surgeons to assess opinions, attitudes and requirements of contemporary surgical trainers. All information was analyzed to define the competences, oriented on core categories of competence-based medical education and on the structure and guideline of the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET).

The analyzed national guidelines/frameworks do neither represent genuine curricula – containing some SMART learning objectives and/or milestones, assessment and evaluation instruments and didactical support for teaching and learning – nor the obligation of a teachers training.

The 352 answers of the questionnaire survey were analyzed per country in a descriptive and statistical manner. Competences were identified to form the professional profile along the roles: planner; facilitator; information provider; assessor; resource developer and role model.

Currently, the development of an appropriate TTT curriculum is in progress.

Based on the results the authors recommend the discussion and implementation of a European professional profile of the surgical trainer and a suitable curriculum that allows for the acquisition of the necessary competences.

This works offers an occasion for scientific discussion about the improvement of specialty training in selected European countries as well as on pan-European level.