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SCTS Essential Skills Course in Cardiothoracic Surgery for ST2/CT2 in the midst of COVID-19 Keng Ang, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon, Glenfield Hospital Mubarak Chaudhry, Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, Castlehill Hospital
D
uring these unprecedented times, many training events in our specialty have either been suspended or delivered in a virtual platform. With a bit of good fortune, the SCTS was able to host the annual SCTS Essential Skill Course for ST2/CT2 on 2728 September 2020, at Nottingham City Hospital Postgraduate Centre, before the second England lockdown came into force. This annual course was designed for Cardiothoracic Surgical Trainees in ST2/
CT2, to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills required for their stage of training and prepare them for transition to ST3. The highlights for the course included 2 full day sessions in cardiac and thoracic skill laboratories, whereby delegates were able to learn skills such as sternotomy, conduit harvesting, thoracic approaches, principles of lung resection, airway management and chest draining management, using a variety of cadaveric models, animal models and
dry laboratory simulations. In between sessions, there was also small group teaching and virtual lectures. This year’s guest lecture was delivered by SAC chair, Professor Jahangiri. We also had a special lecture on Congenital Cardiac Surgery by Ms Van Doorn. In order to comply with the COVID-19 regulations at that time, we had to make several adjustments. First of all, we had to reduce the number of delegates accepted for the course to