Learning Online
My goal with all of my workshops is not to teach you how to do a surgery, but for you to learn how to do a surgery.
The way in which information is delivered makes a big difference as to what we tend to retain or embody. Textbooks and powerpoint-type presentations will give you loads of information, but odds are you won’t retain much of it (unless you reread numerous times).
Through my years of teaching, I’ve learned how to deliver information so that you are more likely to actually learn and attain it. It’s in how I speak to you, how I prioritize and emphasize the information, and how I bring to you all the information you need to have a successful outcome (this goes far beyond the surgery!).
I deliver the information in many different ways: with pictures, with added motion, with narrated videos of the procedures and with short video clips to explain specific points. And I also repeat!
I have been teaching these surgical procedures to general practitioners for years, and I know where the difficult teaching points are. WIthin my online workshops, I spend extra time on these points and have created extra videos or picture slides to further explain them.
The keys to learning how to do a surgery are practice and repetition.
The very best way to learn how to do a surgical procedure (such as an FHO) through an online course (but also after an in-person course as well), is as follows:
- Dedicate the time: for instance, plan a weekend for this purpose.
- Have cadaver(s) and instruments ready to practice on (for the FHO it’s best to have a cat and a small dog)
- Watch the ‘Surgical procedure’ section of the course and the surgical video. Do a cadaver hip;
- Go back and review the surgical picture slides and watch the surgical video again
- Now do the second hip.
- Watch another section of the course – maybe the post-op care (you might want to have some of your staff watch this also).
- Now be done for the day, have a glass of wine and a nice dinner.
- The next morning, go over the salient surgical material again and watch the video. Now do a hip and then do the other.
- Finish the online course by doing the third section (indications, complications and case selection).
- Ideally, you have a Yorkie with Legge Perthes waiting to see you on Monday morning!
Trust me! This approach will take you a long way to being ready to do the surgery on a patient. Watch the narrated videos of the surgical procedure each time before you do the surgery. If you do so, you will subconsciously pick up many points (such as how to hold or use an instrument, where to stand, how to dissect, where to position the retractors).
Now you’re ready!
