SP 4.12 This Teaching is GOLD! General Surgery Online Learning and Development – A National Online Learning Platform for General Surgery – A Review of its First Year
Thomas Badenoch, Lydia Newton, Rina George, Sarah DowneyAbstract
Aims
General surgery trainees are required to sit the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) exam in order to practice as a senior surgeon in the UK and Ireland. General surgery Online Learning and Development (GOLD) is a new educational resource funded by NHS England, aimed at providing dedicated FRCS teaching and delivered by national experts.
Methods
A team of four was recruited to run the programme; two consultants and two specialist registrar education fellows. We launched an online platform, and a programme of monthly teaching sessions. This project reviews output and challenges faced over 15 months (October 2024 – January 2026).
Results
931 training and non-training registrars in the UK and Ireland have registered for GOLD. 14 live online 2.5 hour sessions have been delivered, covering varied syllabus topics. Each live session receives a mean of 72 attendees and sessions are recorded with a monthly channel average of 176 views. Feedback is very positive with an overall average score for all sessions being 4.7/5. A survey of GOLD members revealed that more than 70% of the time, non-training clinical commitments prevented live attendance, and of those requesting study leave half was not granted.
Conclusions
GOLD provides high quality teaching which can be accessed both live and on demand. Attendance of the live sessions is variable with the main barrier being clinical commitments. More work can be done in helping to promote these sessions and regional representatives will be starting in post April 2026 aimed at improving uptake nationally.