Into Africa: Basic Surgical Skills Trainingin Northern Tanzania

Abstract

The intercollegiate Basic surgical skills (BSS) course is a rite of passage for UK surgical trainees and this approach to teaching skills is used in daily practice to ensure our trainees develop good surgical techniques and habits. We take it for granted that formal courses are delivered by the surgical royal colleges and now via the schools of surgery; however, this form of teaching is only now being introduced throughout other parts of the world. On the back of the success achieved by BSS in the UK, it has been successfully implemented in over 45 countries, including Barbados, 2 El Salvador, 3 Jordan 4 and dubai 5 in the past 5 years alone. The Education department of the RCS recently visited Tanzania to encourage inception of a surgical skills course programme.