By Dr Warwick Nettle
(FRACS, Specialist Plastic Surgeon)
“Ongoing education obviously is extremely important in surgery, as it is in all fields of life. If you have an engineer who’s building a bridge, you want that engineer to be qualified. You want them to have attended conferences of bridge builders and what the latest techniques are and how to keep those bridges safe and up and functioning.
It’s exactly the same with a surgeon. You want someone who attends conferences, knows what they’re doing, stays up to date. One of the interesting things about conferences – and I do a lot of talking at conferences – is you learn a lot out of teaching. So, it really makes you focus your attention on what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and having defensible reasons as to why you’re doing something. It makes you really think more about those procedures deeply and question, ‘Well, why are we doing that? Why can’t we do it this way? Is there a better way?’ Teaching is a really, really good form of learning.”
