From “See One, Do One, Teach One” to Hands-On Simulation and Objective Assessment in Surgical Training

There is a worldwide demand for methods to train surgeons in a fast, efficient, and low-cost manner. The old adage “see one, do one, teach one” is still widespread in surgical education, even if novel systems may help surgeons acquire significant expertise in a safe, efficient, and effective way. The purpose of this chapter is to assess the state of the art of surgical education to identify the best approaches for the current training of surgeons according to their level and preferences. To date, surgical training on patients themselves is no more feasible. Trainee surgeons should use valid virtual simulators and gradually obtain independence from expert surgeons’ surveillance. Anyway, the systematization of surgical training has not been explored extensively so far. Since appropriate surgical training methods may be correlated with better patient health outcomes and resource-efficient training, further research is mandatory to validate and spread high-performance training models, like a routine for trainee surgeons worldwide.