Students

If you are currently a medical student, you will already know a little about surgery as a career and how your training might progress immediately after medical school.

However, you may not yet have made definite plans about your future career, and may not yet know how to make that decision or how to put your plans into action.

This section will help you to do this.

Medical school is an excellent time for you to explore your options and to start planning your career. There are many opportunities you can take while still a student that will aid your future career as a surgeon. The following pages outline some of these and what you can be doing now to ensure your success in the future.

National Undergraduate Curriculum in Surgery

The Royal College of Surgeons has published a new national undergraduate curriculum for medical schools to help ensure doctors qualify with the knowledge and skills to manage conditions where a patient may need surgery.

The National Undergraduate Curriculum in Surgery will be of interest to all medical students and those involved in their teaching. It provides guidance to create an evidence based, clinically relevant and contemporary curriculum.

The complementary syllabus clarifies the minimum standard expected of all students graduating with a medical degree including a Bachelor of Surgery (BS, ChB, BCh, BChir, etc.). Given the importance of surgical principles to all aspects of medicine, these learning objectives and topics are relevant to all students, irrespective of their subsequent career path. 

The RCS aspires to the integration of this undergraduate curriculum and syllabus into existing undergraduate medical school education.

Please contact us if you have any questions.