© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 137
T.S. Köhler, B. Schwartz (eds.), Surgeons as Educators,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64728-9_8
Teaching in the Operating Room
Moben Mirza and Joel F. Koenig
Introduction
Medicine has evolved dramatically during the last century to the extent that much of
what goes on in modern medical care would be unrecognizable to a physician at the
turn of the twentieth century. The impact of novel therapies, surgical techniques,
and diagnostic technologies over the last 30 years alone is staggering. Education in
the operating room, the cornerstone of surgical training, however has made little
substantive progress since the days of surgical apprenticeships. The institution of
surgical residencies in the early twentieth century provided structure to research and
didactic curriculums, but operative training is still primarily based on individual
observation and mentorship with limited objective standards and oversight. The
demands of our modern medical era, from duty hour restrictions to financial pres-
sures, as well as a heightened sense of public accountability and transparency high-
light the need to harness every available resource to maximize operating room
education for teachers, trainees, and ultimately for patients.
Historical Context
Prior to the twentieth century, the training of surgeons was primarily a one-on-one
apprenticeship model in which young trainees would spend several years observing
and imitating a mentor surgeon giving rise to the well-known dictum “watch one, do
one, teach one.” The quality of training within this system by its nature varied
greatly with the quality of the individual mentor and the lacked central organization
M. Mirza, MD
University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, MO, USA
J.F. Koenig, MD (*)
Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO, USA
e-mail: [email protected]