The TROJAN project: creating a customized international orthopedic training program for junior doctors

Abstract

Musculoskeletal problems account for a vast proportion of presentations encountered by doctors globally, with figures ranging from 15-36%. However, the time medical schools allocate to learning orthopedics is by no means proportional to this. This study aims to bridge this gap by developing an international orthopedic teaching program tailored to the specific knowledge and skills required by junior doctors in different countries. This prospective study asked fifty junior doctors, who had recently completed an orthopedics job, what three orthopedic teaching topics taught retrospectively would have benefitted their clinical practice. The most requested topics were used to design educational workshops for junior doctors and these consequently comprised the TROJAN (Teaching Requested by Orthopaedic Juniors And Novices) training program. Data was collected from twenty-five junior doctors in KwaZulu-Natale State, South Africa, and twenty-five in London, UK. It is therefore in these two countries that the TROJAN program was subsequently made available. Participants who selected topics were within two years of graduating medical school and had worked an orthopedic or Accident and Emergency job within the last year. 49% of topics chosen by SA doctors were practical skills such as wrist and ankle fracture reduction techniques, and management of open fractures. The most requested topic by UK doctors (11 out of 25) was management of neck of femur fractures. This is rationalized by the fact South African doctors require more handson responsibility in their daily practice whereas in the UK greater emphasis is placed on optimizing patients for theatre and making sound management plans. TROJAN currently develops orthopedic skills and knowledge in junior doctors in South Africa and United Kingdom with teaching customized based upon location. Feedback has been exceptionally positive with every candidate thus far rating the usefulness of TROJAN as the highest option, <em>very useful.</em>