ICELANDIC SURGICAL TRAINING
Surgical training is Iceland is a two year program, correlating to Core Surgical Training in the UK and in close co-operation with JCST.
The structure is very similar, with the same curriculum and the same evaluation methods. Placements are mostly in general surgery but can also include urology, thoracic, vascular, plastics or neurosurgery.
There are usually 10 trainees per year. After the two years, trainees must go to another country to finish their training. Most go to Sweden or the other Nordic countries but a few go to the United States.
U.K. SURGICAL TRAINING PROGRAMME
After completing 5 to 6 years of medical school and two years of a Foundation Programme, doctors can choose to enter Core Surgical training via the National Selection Process.
All surgical training in the UK is overseen by the Joint Committee for Surgical training (JCST). It acts as an advisory body to the four surgical colleges in the UK and develop the syllabus and curriculum for all ten surgical sub-specialties.
The surgical training pathway itself, starts with two years of Core Surgical Training in either a themed specialty, such as Orthopaedics, or uncoupled posts where trainees rotate through different sub-specialties via six-month posts.
During Core Surgical Training, and further Specialty Training, we are required to use the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (ISCP) website to record our progress and follow the JCST/SCP curriculum.
In addition to completing Core Surgical competencies in line with the curriculum, we are also required to be involved in all the various aspects of Clinical Governance:, such as audits, research, and teaching. Not only does this develop other important skills required of a surgeon but also forms the basis of our registrar application process later.
Each year we have an end of year Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) in which our Training Programme Director (TPD) along with a panel of surgical consultants review the evidence submitted on the ISCP and advise on whether we can progress to the next stage of training.
The Membership of Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) is a requirement for completion of core surgical training and required to be able to progress to specialty training
After completing two years of Core Surgical Training, candidates then apply for specialty training again via a national selection process. There are a few surgical specialties that offer a run through training programme (e.g. neurosurgery, cardiothoracic, maxillofacial). Once a trainee has obtained a training number, they then have six years of training until they are required to complete the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) as well as all competencies set out by the JCST curriculum in order to achieve Certification of Completion of Training (CCT).
