A career in surgery

Editor - Further to the article published in the July issue on a career in surgery¹, your readers might be interested to know that in September 2000, the Medical Student Liaison Committee (MSLC) was set up by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in response to a growing demand to improve links between medical schools and the college at a student level. The committee has at least one student representative (and in most cases two) from each medical school in the United Kingdom.

The MSLC's primary objective is to promote surgery as a career choice among medical students. In order to achieve this student representatives are setting up individual surgical societies in their own medical schools. The societies ideally need to have at least one point of contact from each academic year.

The societies together with the student representatives are encouraged to organise local surgical events in their own medical school. These events could involve anything from talks by local surgeons about careers in surgery to basic surgical skills courses for medical students.

The Royal College of Surgeons holds events, such as careers days, on a regular basis at the college in London. The events held across the country by MSLC representatives will make it easier for those medical students who live far from London to attend such events. The college is also drafting a series of career fact sheets aimed at medical students.

So if you have thought about a career in surgery and would like to find out what surgical training entails, then get in touch with the surgical society at your medical school. Alternatively, contact the student representatives to the MSLC in your medical school or email wist@rcseng.ac.uk

Mahmoud Abu­Amara, St George's Hospital Medical School representative on the MSLC


studentBMJ 2001;09:261-304 August ISSN 0966-6494