TRAINING

Introduction

The department of Neurosurgery at Frenchay hospital has a strong reputation for clinical training of registrars. A high throughput of patients with a broad spectrum of neurosurgical disorders allows trainees to acquire valuable clinical and surgical skills. The training programme is further supported by departmental and neurosciences academic meetings, and teaching sessions.

The registrar training pogramme and trainee rotation is integrated with the Department of Neurosurgery at Derriford hospital, Plymouth. Joint regional postgraduate study days with Plymouth are organised on a quarterly basis.

Academic Meetings

Weekly

  1. Neuropathology Meeting
  2. Neuroradiology Meeting
  3. Neurovascular meeting
  4. Joint Neurosurgery Orthopaedic Radiology meeting
  5. Regional Neuroscience Meeting: Case presentations and Visiting lectures
  6. Pediatric Neurosurgical Meeting
  7. Registrar and SHO Teaching Lectures

Monthly

The department holds a series of monthly postgraduate study days. Every four months, this meeting is held jointly with the Department of Neurosurgery at Derriford hospital, Plymouth.

  1. Post-graduate Study Day

    a) Mortality Audit

    b) Registrar / SHO Teaching

CLINICAL TRAINING

The training programme consists of a 6 year Specialist Registrar (SpR) training period as follows:

Year 1

In the first year, there is strong emphasis on basic operative technique and clinical decision making. Junior SpRs are assigned to an operating list 2 to 3 days a week, and most trainees participate in more than 200 cases during their first year. The bulk of the cases are trauma craniotomies, routine spinal procedures, and shunt surgery. Registrars attend the outpatient clinic once a week.

Years 2 & 3

Increasingly difficult procedures are assigned to more senior trainees and consist mainly of complex spinal procedures with instrumentation, craniotomy for intra-axial tumors and meningiomas, and posterior fossa surgery.

Years 4 - 6

Senior trainees are exposed to major cases including the clipping of aneurysms, skull base procedures, complex spine surgery, and posterior fossa procedures. Their responsibilities also include overseeing the clinical service, supporting junior trainees and teaching Senior House Officers and medical students. At the completion of their training programme, trainees would have usually performed in excess of 600 cases personally.

In the final two years, the emphasis is towards consolidating on more complex neurosurgical procedures and succeeding in the Intercollegiate Board Examination in Neurological Surgery (FRCS,SN).

After the completion of training, registrars are encouraged to embark upon a 12 month training fellowship at other institutions to further develop their chosen sub-specialist interest before commencing their neurosurgical careers.

Other Postgraduate Education

The Department of Neurological Surgery participates in the education of senior house officers in the departments of neurosurgery and neurology. The educational programme includes weekly lectures on neurosurgical and neuroscience topics, teaching of basic skills in the operating theatre and ward rounds.

RESEARCH

Trainees are encouraged to participate in research throughout their training. They commonly have five to eight publications in referenced journals and several presentations at national and international meetings by the completion of their training.

A full-time research fellowship is usually undertaken during the training period. Trainees generally embark upon a 12 to 24 month period of full-time research conducting clinical or basic science research on specific projects which lead to a higher postgraduate degree in neurosciences.

Trainees are supervised either by a member of the neurosurgery department faculty or another neuroscience department where collaborative projects are ongoing. During this research period, trainees are expected to attend clinical teaching sessions where possible. After completing their research training, trainees return to the clinical service.

RESEARCH FELLOWS

Mr Puneet Plaha FRCS: Functional Fellowship (2003- 2004): Stereotactic Functional Neurosurgery for Parkinson's disease

Mr Nik Patel FRCS: Functional Fellowship (2000- 2002): Stereotactic Functional Neurosurgery for Parkinson's disease

Mr Crispin Wigfield FRCS: Medtronic Sofamor Danek Fellowship (1998-2000): Cervical Spine Surgery

Mr Paul Grundy FRCS: Royal College of Surgeon Fellowship (1998-2000): Neurotrophic and Glucocorticoid Responses to Traumatic Brain Injury

Miss Stana Bojanic FRCS: Royal College of Surgeon Fellowship (1997- 1999):Oculomotor microtremor in neurological disorders

Mr Philip Coburn FRCS: Royal College of Surgeon Fellowship (1998-1999): Functional Pallidotomy in Parkinson's disease

Mr Nitin Patel FRCS(SN): British Brain & Spine Foundation Fellowship (1995-1997): The Neurotrophic and TrK Receptor responses to Traumatic Brain Injury

Mr Tim Germon FRCS(SN): Research Felowship(1993-1995): Near-infrared Spectroscopy & Cerebral Blood Flow

CURRENT TRAINEES

Katie Gilkes FRCS, UK

Matthew Garnet FRCS, UK

Dev Ramnarine FRCS, Trinidad

Shahid Siddique FRCS, UK

Anant Kamat MRCS, India

Nick Park FRCS, UK

Sudish Karunakaran MRCS, India

Amit Amit FRCS, India

Nick Haden FRCS, UK

PREVIOUS TRAINEES / FELLOWS (1995-2000)

Matthew Garnet FRCS, Consultant, Cambridge,UK

Crispin Wigfield FRCS, Consultant, Liverpool, UK

Paul Grundy FRCS, Consultant, Southampton, UK

Nik Patel FRCS,Consultant, Bristol, UK

Madison Michael II FACS,Consultant, Memphis,USA

Stana Bojanic FRCS,Consultant, Oxford,UK

Richard Edwards FRCS,Consultant, Bristol,UK

Emad Shenouda FRCS,Consultant, Southampton,UK

Torstein Meling FRCS,Consultant, Norway

Zuhair Taha FRCS,Consutlant, Oman

Essam El Gamal FRCS,Consultant, Egypt

Rafay Zafar FRCS(SN), Consultant,Pakistan

Ellison Stevenson FRACS, Consultant, Brisbane, Australia

Richard Kahler FRACS, Consultant, Brisbane, Australia

Simon McKechnie FRACS, Consultant, Sydney, Australia

Ravi Krishnapillai FRCS(SN), Consultant, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Don Atkins FACS, Consultant, Memphis, USA

Nick Theodore FACS,Consultant, USA

Sylvia Gatscher FRCS, Consultant, UK

Sherif El Watidy FRCS(SN), Consultant, Saudi Arabia

George Malcolm FRCS(SN), Consultant, Bristol, UK

Andrew Law FRACS, Consultant, Auckland, New Zealand

Devsur BasavaKumar FRCS, Bangalore, India

Nick Finnis FRACS, Consultant, Auckland, New Zealand

Nitin Patel FRCS(SN), Consultant, Bristol, UK

Tim Germon FRCS(SN), Consultant, Plymouth, UK

David McDowell FRACS, Consultant, Sydney, Australia

Steven Halcrow FRACS, Consultant, Adelaide, Australia

Aziz Moufid, Consultant, France

Ian Pople FRCS(SN), Consultant, Bristol, UK

Thomas Cadoux-Hudson FRCS(SN), Consultant, Oxford, UK

Waleed Murshid FRCS(SN), Consultant, Saudi Arabia

Martin McGee-Collett FRACS, Consultant, Sydney, Australia

 
Comments or Technical Problems.
Copyright copy 2001 Department of Neurosurgery, Frenchay Hospital, Frenchay, Bristol, UK     Phone +44 117 970 1212
Email: nitin.patel@neurosurgery.uk.net


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