Nurturing of surgical careers by the Wellington Surgical Interest Club.

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has recently introduced the new Surgical Education and Training programme. The purpose of this was, in part, to help address the anticipated shortage of surgeons in the future, by streamlining the surgical training programme. The formation of the Wellington Surgical Interest Club (WSIC), a student-led initiative, had several complementary goals. These included the desire to identify potential candidates for a career in surgery, promote a surgical career to students especially women, help students acquire basic surgical skills early, inform students about surgical careers, promote student involvement in surgical research and to create an effective mentorship model during undergraduate and junior surgical training. The strengths of WSIC are its goals, which are similar to those of the RACS with regard to promoting surgery as a career option; its easy reproducibility at other medical institutions; its ability to focus on issues of relevance to both students and junior doctors; and being a bridging solution at a time when early exposure to surgical specialties is both desired and necessary.