A ‘hands-on teaching’ day for trainee brain surgeons to try out different surgical techniques and even make mistakes has been held at Queen’s Hospital.
The trainees used dummy skulls as well as eggs and oranges to test their fine motor skills.
“Model skulls in simulations let them practice where it’s okay to make mistakes,” senior neurosurgical registrar Rose Ingleton explained. “Simulations help to make them better surgeons in the future for their patients.”
The ‘skull’ sessions combined lectures from internationally-renowned neurosurgeons with the practical course in a state-of-the-art simulation lab at the Romford hospital complex.
Trainees took part from Queen’s and King George as well as other hospitals across London, to learn techniques handling the same neurosurgical instruments they would use in a live operating theatre.
A precision challenge was thrown down where they also had to use the instruments on the eggs and oranges to test their fine motor skills — with prizes for the best performers.
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