The Plastic Surgery Residents’ School

The Turkish Board of Plastic Surgery has published the National Plastic Surgery Curriculum in 2006, in order to guide and standardize the plastic surgery training all over the country in more than 78 centers that have a plastic surgery residency program. The curriculum has been built on 5 competencies as knowledge, skill, attitude, academic progress and ethical/professional values (www.tpc.org.tr/education/…).  
In 2007, in order to support plastic surgery clinics in achieving the training goals cited in the curriculum, The Turkish Society has decided to open annual courses under the name of The Plastic Surgery Resident’s School. The school has a more skills-based program that covers the subjects which may be difficult to provide in majority of training centers such as “photography and video recording in plastic surgery”, “patient and in-staff communication skills”,  “competency in media and public relations”, “manuscript writing principles”, “medical aesthetic procedures”, etc.
Lectures/skills training is performed in 20-person classes with an interactive or hands-on approach. Communication skills are given by role-playing, discussion groups based on scenarios played by simulated patients and residents, and psychodrama sessions. The school is open for 7 days in every spring and the venue is usually a seaside resort. In the social program there are activities like water-sports tournament, paintball, rafting, wine tasting, dance classes, karaoke and disco night. The faculty is chosen from the experts who also have training for interactive teaching. One or two 4th year or above ranked resident from each training center is expected to attend the school for:
1.    Standardizing their curricular training,
2.    Creating connections with their peers in the same generation from different cities and clinics.
A member of the Society’s Executive Board who is responsible from the scientific affairs chairs this program. An independent observer from a medical education department reviews the program every year by attending the classes, interviewing the residents and faculty and analyzing the evaluation sheaths completed by the attendants after each session.
Having completed the third Resident’s School, we received a very good feedback from the residents and their clinical chiefs and the number of applicants that is growing every year also reflects this. Beside achieving the scientific goals, the catalyzing effect of this program between plastic surgery residents is surprisingly striking and strengthens our Society’s hopes for the future.

Core Curriculum

Core CurriculumTable