I listened to Mr Jose's talk on the history of how surgery has evolved into the current day modernised surgery. Though as a student of history in my spare time, I did had some insight into the evolution of surgery over the centuries but it was very interesting to understand the impact of this history to mould our surgical training into what it is today.

To answer how my surgical training has impacted my career, I would first of all appreciate the efforts of all my mentors in the UK and abroad with whom I have been trained and have gained skill and knowledge.  I agree with my fellow colleagues about the points they have made and I think Most of us would agree that a trainer can be a blessing but otherwise as well. My career as a surgical trainee has been greatly influenced by my seniors. From the very basic assessment to the more complex decision taking, I have been taught, supervised and trained by some of the best surgeons working in the North-west England. As many years ago at the start of my surgical career my mentor taught me one lesson that a good surgeon is NOT the one who knows how to operate but the one who knows when not to operate. This career lesson has always been in my thought process and the essence of this incorporates all the things we do normally from assessment of patient, to investigations, to evaluating pros & cons of surgery, to MDT discussions, to formulating various surgical pathways and ultimately to evaluate the final impact of treatment of our patient's lives. This though done for our patient's ultimately impacts our live as a surgeon in understanding and gaining knowledge and to reflect on how we can improve as surgeons.

This is fascinating how surgery evolved from apprenticeship to the current day surgery which has become more of an art rather than a just inflicting injury to the human body.