Ep. 46 Teaching Trainees the Art of Surgical Learning with Dr. Arpit Davé

On this episode of the BackTable OBGYN Podcast, host Dr. Mark Hoffman is joined by Dr. Arpit Davé, an assistant professor at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Together, they discuss the importance of surgical education and best practices for teaching new generations of surgeons. Both Dr. Davé and Mark emphasize TATA, or tools, access, tissue handling, and anatomy, when practicing and teaching how to master surgery. They discuss the benefits of fostering a “sandbox-learning” environment, or a zone of safety where learners can practice techniques on patients. They also delve into systematic approaches for surgical training and the challenges in measuring the progress of trainees. Most importantly, Dr. Davé and Mark explore how to teach trainees not just surgery, but how to learn about surgery so that they feel competent doing new surgeries as their career in medicine progresses. --- SHOW NOTES 00:00 - Introduction 04:34 - The Role of Teaching in Medicine and Lifelong Learning in Surgery 07:15 - The Challenges of Surgical Training Volume 09:22 - The Journey of Learning and Teaching Surgery 17:59 - Understanding TATA: Surgical Tools, Access, Tissue Handling, and Anatomy 27:01 - The Importance of Practice in Surgical Training 30:04 - The Role of Tissue Handling in Surgical Training 31:20 - Creating Zones of Safety in Surgical Practice 33:31 - The Concept of “Sandboxing” in Surgical Training 34:27 - The Importance of Incremental Learning in Surgery 35:22 - The Importance of Breaking Down Surgical Procedures into Steps 42:32 - The Meaning of “Access” in Surgery 47:26 - How to Teach Trainees to Handle Tough Surgeries and the Unknown 50:05 - The Future of Surgical Training and Education