The Association of Surgeons in Training has provided a pan-specialty focus for excellence in surgical training for over 30 years

The Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) is an educational charity working to promote excellence in surgical training across all nine surgical disciplines. Run by trainees, for trainees, the Association was originally founded in 1976 as a forum for senior registrars to meet socially and discuss matters relating to training. Over the past 30 years the Association has grown in size and stature and is now one of the largest surgical specialty associations in the UK and Ireland with over 2,200 current active members from all specialties.

The structure of ASiT Council consists of trainees from each recognised surgical specialty trainee group, and each School of Surgery. In recent years there has also been an expansion of ASiT’s junior representation through the appointment of dedicated medical student and foundation doctor representatives.

ASiT provides support for trainees’ educational and career development through a wide range of initiatives. Our two Covidien Travelling Fellowships awarded annually to senior trainees headline a number of awards and prizes to support individuals progressing through surgical training. ASiT also now offers many incentives for junior members including two Elsevier Surgical Elective Bursaries awarded annually, a dedicated ASiT conference session, a Foundation Doctors Surgical Essay Prize and an annual Foundation Doctors Seminar, which is free to members and prepares delegates for core surgical training applications.

The Association also works to support surgical trainers going the extra mile to help their trainees master the science and art of surgery. Now in its eleventh year, the annual Swann-Morton Silver Scalpel Award is a trainee-nominated prize for a consultant who has demonstrated excellence in surgical training. It provides important support and recognition for individuals who have put in the extra time for their trainees.

Next month, Simon Lammy hopes to be one of the 18 people in the UK who will be selected into run through training for neurosurgery. Here he reveals the years of meticulous planning that have led to this moment

Neurosurgery is an exact science. Just how exact a science has been made clear to me during my last placement in FY1 – a four-month block in neurosurgery at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

In January’s edition of Surgeons’ News, I wrote about my reasons for moving from London to Aberdeen after passing finals in June 2010. I knew the move was necessary to get the experience I needed to pursue neurosurgery – but this was just the latest stage in a long process to demonstrate my commitment to the specialty.

My application for neurosurgical run through training is due in December. It is a national selection process co-ordinated by the Yorkshire & Humbar Deanery. There are two main reasons why competition for places is strong.

Becky Sandford spent 18 months on an out-of-programme VSO placement at a district hospital in the south of Malawi

Malawi’s Thyolo District Hospital is a 400-bed Ministry of Health hospital built less than 10 years ago and has three main operating theatres. The hospital and theatres are staffed by clinical officers with no local doctors involved in clinical practice.

I travelled there in February 2010 after doing two years general surgery, one year vascular surgery and six months renal transplant surgery as a registrar as part of an NTN training scheme.

The hospital has two trained doctors acting in the mainly managerial roles of District Health Officer and District Medical Officer. During my time in Thyolo, there was also a Dutch tropical doctor who worked mainly in maternity and paediatrics, allowing me to focus on surgery.

Anaesthetic care is provided by two trained anaesthetic clinical officers and surgical procedures are carried out by any member of the clinician staff. No formal surgical training is given to clinicians in training, however on completion of internship all are expected to be able to perform incision and drainage of abscesses, debridement of necrotic wounds, caesarean sections and laparotomies for ruptured ectopic pregnancies. These techniques are usually taught by more experienced clinicians, but the level of instruction and supervision varies widely. In addition, it is MOH policy that clinicians rotate through each department of the hospital (male ward, female ward, maternity and paediatrics) on a three-monthly basis, providing a challenge to the maintenance of skills in any one area.

Manchester medical student Matthew Fell discusses the challenges and rewards of his African Elective bursary

I arranged my Africa elective of spring 2011 with a UK charity which organises surgical treatment for patients with facial disfigurement living in small, remote communities of eastern Ethiopia.

The majority of patients require treatment for cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) and more than 1000 patients have received a single surgical intervention for CLP since 2003. However, due to the post-operative repatriation of these patients back to their village, follow-up is virtually non-existent.