Opportunities in Surgery
Committee Application Pack
Opportunities in Surgery (OiS) is an initiative to encourage diversity among surgeons, so that our future
surgical workforce will represent the community it serves. OiS incorporates the Women in Surgery
project, the Medical Student Liaison Committee and the Staff and Associate Specialist Committee.
The OiS committee is responsible for identifying issues which impact on surgical careers and to assist
the College in identifying suitable mechanisms for addressing these issues.
Supported by the committee the OiS team within the College provides an email and telephone careers
service, careers literature, advice on flexible training and flexible working. It also runs the Affiliate
scheme for medical students and pre-MRCS trainees.
OiS is involved in a range of events from school students and careers events for medical students, to
support of trainees and consultants in their Surgical Careers.
These events:
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Demonstrate the rewards and challenges of a career in surgery
Present the broad range of career options available within surgery and highlight a variety of
surgical specialties
Engage young people in discussions with medical students, junior doctors and consultant
surgeons and other positive role models about life in a surgical profession
Provide an opportunity to practice basic surgical skills such as suturing, knot-tying and basic
endoscopy techniques
Equip participants with a basic understanding of the skills and competency required of all
surgeons
Provide an opportunity to gain knowledge of affiliated subjects such as anatomy and pathology
Opportunities in Surgery Committee Structure
Opportunities
in Surgery
Medical Student Liaison Committee
Women in Surgery
Staff and Associate Speciality
Careers Support Activities
Medical Student
Trainees
Staff and Associate Specialist
Consultants
International Medical Graduates
Refugee Doctors
Medical Student Liaison Committee
In September 2000 the Medical Student Liaison Committee (MSLC) was set up by the College in
response to a growing demand to improve links between medical schools and the college at a student
level. The committee has a student representative from most medical schools in the UK.
The MSLC’s primary objective is to promote surgery as a career choice among medical students. In
order to achieve this, student representatives from individual surgical societies in their own medical
schools. These surgical societies ideally need to have at least one point of contact from each academic
year.
The surgical 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 College holds events (such as careers days) on a regular basis at the college’s facilities in London.
The events held locally by MSLC representatives will make it easier for those medical students who live
far from London to attend. The College has also career literature aimed at medical supporting
students.
Women in Surgery Committee
Women in Surgery was launched on November 5th 2007 and replaced the previous initiative WiST
(Women in Surgical Training). Women in Surgery was set up to address the under-representation of
women in surgery and aims to encourage, enable and inspire women to fulfil their surgical ambitions.
Currently only 8.71% of consultant surgeons are women (2011). This is in marked contrast to the
approx 55% of medical degree applicants who are women, and also compares with a higher proportion
of female surgical trainees. These statistics show a dramatic drop-off in the numbers of women
reaching the highest levels of surgical training, and they have important implications:
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Attracting the best people is one of the major issues facing the profession, particularly as it is
increasingly difficult to recruit good candidates into Core Training posts. If surgery continues to be
a male-dominated profession the surgeons of the future must come, by default, from the
increasingly small proportion of male graduates. It is crucial that we recruit from the whole pool of
graduates and attract those with the highest aptitude for surgery, regardless of gender.
Research has shown that women are often discouraged from applying to surgery not because of
any intrinsic nature of the profession, but because they do not see themselves reflected in the
higher grades and therefore have no role models whom they can emulate. The group works to
address this by raising the profile of women surgeons, and so encouraging women and increasing
their numbers.
Having recruited surgeons, we must work to keep them and to ensure that they do not leave the
specialty before completion of their training. Addressing issues that affect both men and women
but are often more acute for women surgeons, such as the need to train less than full time, will
help to achieve this.
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Women in Surgery’s Mission is
"to encourage, enable and inspire women to fulfill their surgical ambitions"
Women in Surgery aims to:
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To raise the profile of women in surgery
To work towards understanding of the issues facing Women in Surgery
To encourage attitudinal change ensuring women are seen as an integral part of the profession
To provide advice, guidance and pastoral support for those women already in surgery or considering entering it
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To support the WinS network
Women in Surgery is a subcommittee of Opportunities in Surgery and is recruited in open competition
and has representation from across the grades. For more information or to join:
http://surgicalcareers.rcseng.ac.uk/wins
Staff and Associate Specialist Committee
The College’s Staff and Associate Specialist Committee was established in 2005, with the aim of
providing a formal mechanism for SAS surgeons and Speciality Doctors to be represented within and
outside the College.
The remit of the Committee includes involvement with policy matters relevant to SAS surgeons and
Specialty Doctors, including: workforce issues, professional development, training and education and
standards of surgical care.
The Committee promotes SAS and Specialty Doctor involvement in relevant issues at both regional and
national levels as well as engagement with SAS surgeons and Specialty Doctors across England and
Wales.
Careers Support
The Opportunities in Surgery committee and team oversee the delivery of careers information and
support from school age through all levels of surgery.
Opportunities in Surgery also maintain the email and telephone careers service which are open to all as
well as the College careers literature and website. www.rcseng.ac.uk/career
The key areas of work in this area include:
 Medical Students
In addition to the Medical Student Liaison Committee (MSLC) which has a direct feed to OiS we
also host two careers sessions a year for students and attend a programme of careers fairs and
conferences directed at medical students and trainees.
 Trainees
OiS runs and attends a programme of careers events to support trainees and provides a variety
of careers literature.
 Affiliates
The College oversees the Affiliate scheme for medical students and pre-MRCS trainees
www.rcseng.ac.uk/support/affiliates which provides a range of benefits including targeted
careers events and regular newsletters.
 Staff and Associate Specialist
The College has an SAS Committee the co-chair of which sits on Opportunities in Surgery to
ensure that the committee is kept up to date with developments and provide suitable careers
support to this group. http://surgicalcareers.rcseng.ac.uk/surgeons/sas
 International Medical Graduates (IMG’s)
OiS maintains and oversees the careers provision for IMG’s wishing to work in the UK
http://surgicalcareers.rcseng.ac.uk/international-doctors
 Refugee Doctors
The College is committed to supporting refugee surgeons and surgical trainees by assisting our
professional colleagues to integrate into the NHS.
http://surgicalcareers.rcseng.ac.uk/international-doctors/refugee-doctors