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'They can make mistakes and there's no consequence': How Ireland's medical students train for surgery

Robots and virtual reality tools are being used to train aspiring medics at the new RCSI building.

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

EVER HAD KEYHOLE surgery? Ireland’s medical students are training to perform such operations at this state-of-the-art RCSI building in Dublin city centre.

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland says it’s part of a drive away from classroom learning setups and towards training based on clinical simulation and virtual reality tools.

Students will be able to practice skills involved with keyhole surgery. Robots are also used to replicate emergency room situations, allowing trainee medics to sharpen their interpersonal skills.

We were invited to take a look at the new facility and see how the new technology works.

Watch: ‘This robotic birthing ‘mother’ is being used to teach Irish medical students’ >

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    Mute Jay Lane
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    Oct 22nd 2017, 8:43 PM

    We spend fortunes training doctors only for most of them to leave the country. Why can’t FAS or whoever they are these days pay for people to become pilots etc especially non academic people since they spend fortunes educating more better off people who either drop out early or flee the country as soon as they graduate.

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Oct 22nd 2017, 9:23 PM

    @Jay Lane: You do know that to be a commercial pilot you have to pass 15 ATPL exams, Also be able to do calculations etc under stand the weather aircraft capabilities.
    Those exams include human performance of the body while in flight, Air law/ navigation etc. Only after you pass them you can go for your CPL (Commercial pilot licence) after you have carried out so many hours flying solo.
    Then you do the MEIR exam (Multi engine instrument rating ) after that the MCC (multi crew co operation). Then your ready to apply to a airline for a job as a cadet.

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    Mute Ryan
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    Oct 22nd 2017, 9:41 PM

    @Jay Lane: Or they become politicians…

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    Mute Joe Harbison
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    Oct 22nd 2017, 10:22 PM

    @Jay Lane: RCSI is funded predominantly by fees from International Students and the undergrads pay more than they would in the universities. As it is the university medical schools would love to be as well equipped as RCSI but we’re not allowed to charge fees at a level that would actually pay for the training so we supplement it with international students paying high fees but we’re still desperately short staffed and under equipped. At the same time we end up with I’ll informed people like you who dwell under the illusion that they pay for training doctors and they should show their gratitude by working obnoxious hours in poor conditions. Maybe you could help out with the survey the Government is undertaking as to why they all leave.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Oct 22nd 2017, 10:53 PM

    @Jay Lane: while these doctors are getting trained they work extremely long hours in our hospitals while studying while giving presentations while doing research. It’s no walk in the park.

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    Mute Brendan Hughes
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    Oct 22nd 2017, 10:05 PM

    Make a mistake with out consequences. Can’t get any more real life than that. Not in this country anyway.

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    Mute Michael Heery
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    Oct 22nd 2017, 11:37 PM

    @Brendan Hughes: I WAS stunned reading a case last week of a surgeon in killkenny AUT EVIN making a mistake and patient lost her kidney, they argued having to pay the woman compensation , imagine she got 240,000 Compo after a big argument. imagine what the poor woman went through,,i am still stunned reading about it,.

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    Mute Ginger Victi
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    Oct 23rd 2017, 10:44 AM

    I have a friend who has been waiting a couple of year for heart surgery, over the years seeing doctors professors etc there has been a number of students who have tried to diagnose his health issue as part of the training. Over eight years and over a hundred students later, only two ever got his diagnoses right. These were qualified cardiology students.

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    Mute Graham Vincent
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    Oct 23rd 2017, 4:54 PM

    @Ginger Victi: You can’t be “qualified” and a “student” at the same time. The two are mutually exclusive. Were they medical students, in which case they wouldn’t have been specialising in cardiology anyway? Or were they non-consultant doctors specialising in cardiology?

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