When Gian-Marco Busato graduates from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry in 2012, he wants to feel certain becoming a surgeon was the right decision.
Fourth-year Nursing student Anda Roussel practices microsurgery on a pig’s heart, part of the Interprofessional Summer School held at Western this past week.
After attending a student-run course in Romania last summer, Busato was left wanting more. So he developed the concept of a surgery school and then built it further into the Interprofessional Summer School at Western.
Busato arranged a meeting with CSTAR (Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics), which took the idea to the next level by adding an interdisciplinary approach for medical and nursing students.
The week-long course was held at CSTAR’s University Hospital offices and included guest speakers and hands-on labs.
“There is no real opportunity for students to learn at the ground level in an interdisciplinary fashion,” says Busato, adding surgical skills in general don’t get much attention in medical school.
“The field of health care is fast changing, with far more emphasis on patient-centred care and with most mistakes occurring because of poor communication and appreciation across disciplines, namely medicine and nursing. Courses like these are critical to closing that gap between what health care is, and what health care should be.”
The course was developed for medical students in their pre-clerkship years and nursing students in years two to four. Once the course becomes established, Busato hopes to add more disciplines.
“The goals of the course are to allow students to get an understanding of the basics of surgery and surgical skills and develop a sense of whether surgery is a viable career choice for them,” he says. “It enables students to develop an understanding and appreciation of the various roles that occur in the operating room in the hope to help foster better communication between disciplines in future practice.”
CSTAR Director John Parker says he was excited to be approached by a student with the idea, adding Busato had given a lot of thought to an opportunity focused on the needs of aspiring physicians.
“There are a certain percentage of health-care professional graduates who several years into their careers realize they may have made a mistake,” says Parker.
Parker intends to evaluate this past week’s class and table it with Schulich, the Faculty of Health Sciences and others.
“We are very much focused on quality improvement, to determine whether there is provincial or national level interest for this program and for CSTAR to become the acknowledged centre and destination for these kind of experiences.”
“The reaction at CSTAR to my program was incredible,” says Busato. “They have a fantastic facility with what appears to be limitless potential for innovation and teaching. I am very privileged to have them supporting this idea the way they have because without them this idea may never have gotten off the ground.”
Busato says the skills taught ranged from sterile fields and scrubbing-in, to the fundamentals of anesthesia and intubation, to suturing and knot-tying. Students tried advanced techniques such as laparoscopy and microsurgery, with the course culminating in a simulated surgery where students put all of their newly acquired skills to work.
Anatomy and Cell Biology professor Marjorie Johnson, who assisted with the classes, says such courses are available at the residency level but she likes the fact students are getting introduced much earlier.
“This is really unique because it’s getting the undergraduate medical and nursing students together before they make a decision that surgery is for them,” she says, adding along with the technical aspects of surgery, learning proper behaviour in an operating room is important.