Developing surgical skills in gynaecology and obstetrics

Abstract Obstetrics and gynaecology is a speciality that encompasses both medicine and surgery, which is one of the common reason people chooses to pursue this specialty. In the United Kingdom (UK), junior doctor can apply to specialty training programme after 2 years of working as foundation doctors. The training programme in the UK takes 7 year and throughout these 7 years, trainees are required to obtain competencies in different aspect of the specialty, including a list of procedures and operations that any obstetrician and gynaecologist is expected to be able to perform independently as a consultant. In this article, we first take a look back in history, to understand how the training as a surgical specialty has evolved. We consider changes in training due to the change in workload and working environment. Training has evolved in different ways to optimize the limited opportunities available. We also look into what might be the future of developing surgical skills not just in obstetrics and gynaecology, but across all surgical specialities.