Information
5th Annual Western Vascular Institute
Symposium
The Clayton Hotel
Galway
Friday 11th May
The 5th vascular symposium will countenance scientific sessions, specialist presentations, expert panels, and discussion groups in all aspects of Vascular and Endovascular surgery. The Symposium assembles world leaders, influential, cream of the crop Vascular Surgeons & Interventionalists from Europe and United States. We are proud, and humbled to be the only Irish foundation that has an international Vascular and Endovascular convention. This is made possible, in no small way, by the contribution of all of our Vascular trainees. I am dedicating the welcome note to all young vascular surgeons in training in order to highlight the need for immediate change in their vascular training.Current Vascular training is haphazard and unpredictable. There is increasing pressure to provide transparency about training and performance standards. Effective learning of Vascular & Endovascular skill requires sustained deliberate practice within a cognitive framework. Our obligation is to proceed in response to the existing and future health needs and bestow superior options to surgical trainees interested in a vascular surgery career during their limited contracted training period. We are living in an era of dramatic changes in techniques and knowledge which the occasional vascular surgeon cannot possibly maintain. However, we are compulsory strained to align with general surgeons when in actual fact we have more in common with cardiologists, interventional radiologists and cardiac surgeons. New recruits need to spend all of their time learning new endovascular techniques rather than general surgical procedures that they will not use in future. If we do not take control to implement a structured Vascular and Endovascular training programme we will lose our appeal because the brightest surgeons will not wish to join a "subspecialty" that appears to have no control of its own future? So what does it take to be a Good Vascular Surgeon and to deliver Quality of Vascular Care in Era of Specialisation? “Deliberate Practice Volume”.Deliberate Practice Volume is an Activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance. It reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence and provides feedback on results. This involves a high level of repetition and entails ten years of demanding hard work and practice before you are proficient as a vascular surgeon. However this is the Minimum not the average and you need at least 20-30 years before hitting your Zenith. Although we vehemently oppose the reduction in training time, we must nevertheless be prepared to adapt to changing times, and we must attempt to compensate for reduced quantity by improving the quality of training. The first step in improving quality is to ensure that the limited time available to trainees is not wasted in general surgery and that undivided attention be given to improving vascular and endovascular skills.We require farsightedness, vision, leadership and above all sincerity in developing and delivering the paramount career that is streamlined to our junior vascular colleagues otherwise the unfortunate surgeon will be trained in general/vascular surgery as a Dinosaur ready for extinction and will be absolutely unemployable.