7/29/2019 ASiT Silver Scalpel Award

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Silver Scalpel Award

2006

The 2005 Winner Fiona

MadcNeil

Fiona MacNeill, Consultant

Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon

worked at the Essex County

Hospital and Colchester General

Hospital and is now working

at the Royal Marsden Hospital.

She regards her trainees as

friends and is described by all

as an amazing woman. Theadjective used was aspirational

as everybody tried to aspire to

be like her. She has a strong

sense of duty to the team and

the patient.

She not only got the highest

score on initial screening, she

was the only surgeon to appear

on all the short lists that were

prepared by the Colleges and

declared the winner without

equivocation by the Chief

Medical Ofcer.

A good teacher is easy to recognise but

very hard to dene.

Your submission should indicate

why your trainer deserves a SilverScalpel Award with respect to ve key

competence areas:

1) Leadership

2) Resourcefulness

3) Training Development

4) Professionalism

5) Communication

The scoring system has been

developed with the help of the

Education Department of the Royal

College of Surgeons and Industrial

Psychologists. Each competency is

scored and the top six candidates are

short listed. Letters are then sent to

the chief executive and post-graduatedean to achieve 360 assessment. The

nominated candidates are then visited

by the presidents and ex-presidents

of ASIT and BOTA. The responses

from the interviews are collected in a

standard format and presented to a

second committee.

It draws up a short list of three, which

is then presented to the Chief Medical

Ofcer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson.

The winner will be announced by

February, 2007 and the Award will

be presented at the AGM for the

Association of Surgeons in Training.

Send your nominations by 21 October

2006 (in typed format) to:

Room 173,

Level D,

Jubilee Building,

Leeds General Inrmary,

Great George St,

Leeds

LS1 3EX

The judging process explained

Royal College ofurgeons (re an

oya o ege ourgeons

(England)

Royal College ofurgeons

( a sg ow

Royal College ofurgeons

( n urg

The Silver Scalpel Award has proven that

there are practising surgeons who are

delivering excellence in training despite

the introduction of the European Working

Directive and Calman. Their energy and

enthusiasm has not been dampened by

the cited reasons for a reduction in the

opportunity to learn. On the contrary, the

short listed trainers for the Silver Scalpel

Award have consistently and repeatedly

demonstrated an outstanding ability to

teach and train junior surgeons. They

exhibit a strong sense of leadership by

example. They seize every moment in the

day and sometimes weekends to teach the

holistics of surgical practice. They are clear

in communicating goals but also very ableto step back into a supervisory role and are

prepared to learn that there is not just one

way of doing things. These trainers are

multi facetted and multi talented.

The Silver Scalpel Award started six

years ago and now has approval and

support from all the Royal Colleges. There

is an increasing realisation that it is the

process of training and the trainer that

are fundamental in ensuring that we have

competent surgeons of the future. This

Award is yet to be recognised in principal by

other disciplines and is thus unique.

We want to hear from you, the trainee,

about any surgical trainer you feel deserves

this prestigious Award. You never forget

a good teacher because a good teacher

inspires you to learn and to better yourself.

The winner of the Silver Scalpel Award

in previous years has always scored thehighest mark on initial screening by your

fellow trainees. Please take care therefore,

to think about what you write and reect

on your trainers skills in respect to ve

categories:

Leadership

Resourcefulness

Training Development

Professionalism

Communication

It is clear the winners and short listed

candidates of the Silver Scalpel Award,

not only deliver excellence in training but

also a rst class service. The two go hand-

in-hand and are not mutually exclusive.

Good service enables good training and visa

versa because together they culminate in a

knowledge creating environment.

David J. O ReganMBA MD FRCS C-Th

Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon and

Past President of ASiT