Have you ever wondered about the untaught, 'soft' skills of surgery? This week's article, written by newly-elected ESSS Senior Vice President, Aya, provides advice on achieving important skills such as Networking and Data Handling. Aya is a third-year medical student at the University of Edinburgh, currently undertaking a BMedSci in Surgical Sciences. She has interests in academic surgery, global health and medical informatics and has recently been awarded the RCS Intercalated Bachelor of Science Degree in Surgery Grant for her dissertation with Edinburgh Surgical Informatics team. She is the Edinburgh Regional Lead for the STARSurg research collaborative and is involved in various student societies including being Vice Convenor of the Medical Students Council and Senior Vice President of the Edinburgh Student Surgical Society. Here's what she had to say... As medical students interested in surgery, we all try to do well in exams, practice our surgical skills and get involved in some research. What I recently realised is that there is a whole set of “soft” skills that are not immediately associated with surgery but nonetheless very helpful. A blog post could be written on each of these, but below is a brief list of what they are and some ideas on how to work on them. **As a medical student I am in no way an authority on what skills you need; so this is just a reflection of my personal experiences, opinions and things I may have benefited from knowing earlier. ** Public Speaking If you’re interested in academia, you will be spending some time presenting your work in conferences. Being able to convey your work to others effectively through oral and poster presentations is a key skill. There are plenty of student conferences around to give this a go before venturing to larger ones. Although it may seem daunting for some, being given the opportunity to discuss your work and seeing others engage with it is very enjoyable. My advice would be to try and apply to as many as possible, not just for your CV but for experience, and on the day just show your enthusiasm and approach others. Writing Skills The second half to communicating your work is through papers, but writing is also needed for writing applications for jobs or grants. Scientific writing is a skill you will get a chance to develop doing your dissertation, SSC or in any other research you’re involved in. When designing a poster you have to master conveying the point using even less words, and the element of design comes into play as well. As with anything, it comes with practice and one thing which really helps is to edit other people’s work. Ask your friends if you could read over each other’s work, and in trying to make a piece of writing more understandable to an outsider you become more perceptive as to what makes a good piece of writing. Networking In medicine you are all but guaranteed a job when you graduate, but there remains something to be said for the importance of networking in getting extra research and mentoring opportunities. I will be the first to admit this can sometimes be awkward but there things which can make it a bit easier. Conferences are a great place to network and it helps if you have a particular question in mind to ask (about a speaker’s talk for example or a presenter’s research). Just be enthusiastic, go round with a friend and ultimately don’t overthink it most people are very happy to have a chat. Networking doesn’t only happen in person, in fact quite a lot of it happens on digital platforms such as Linkedin or Twitter. I reluctantly joined Twitter a couple of months ago and you will be surprised how many surgeons are on there. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date with that is happening in the medical world and know of people doing work you might be interested in. Having a “professional” twitter is slightly different to the ‘brunch with the girls’ Instagram stories I’m personally accustomed to and it requires an element of self-promotion that doesn’t come very naturally; but it’s a learning curve and is growing on me. Data & Stats Having a solid understanding of statistics and data science is not only important for your own work but to enable you to understand papers written by other people. There is teaching on this in second year and you might get some in your intercalation but there are plenty of online resources available – lockdown procrastination? Getting confident with using software like SPSS or R will also make your life a lot easier. Time Management You don’t have to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way or do something just because other people seem to be doing it – as counterintuitive as it might be. You also don’t have to fill every second of your time. Pick and choose what you commit to and think about how things fit into what you ultimately want to achieve. Healthy Coping Mechanisms I think it is very easy to get caught up in getting the perfect CV and wanting to get things done very quickly, but the cliched “it’s a marathon not a sprint” rings very true here. Developing the sustainable habits which will allow you to work towards your goals in such a competitive and high pressure career will never seem as urgent or worthy of your time as the other items on your to do list, but it might be the most important. Find what works for you and allows you to de-stress – for me it’s sweating out my stress in a spin class or doing yoga and meditating, but I can see how intense cycling in a dark room with 20 strangers won’t be for everyone. It also worth mentioning that the imposter syndrome is quite real, and from speaking to friends it seems particularly common amongst women. It helps to know that everyone feels this way – it’s not just you – and it doesn’t mean anything just push past it and keep going. Surround yourself with people who support you and support them in turn – it’s a lot more fun that way. Ultimately, we’re medical students and while it’s good to get a handle on these skills early, they come with practice and we have a whole career to develop them. Put things into perspective, take a breath you’re probably already doing great. ESSS thanks Aya for writing this article. Questions can be directed to Aya via email at [email protected].
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AuthorsArticles are written by Edinburgh-based students and doctors, for the benefit of those interested in surgery. Archives
March 2024
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