Table Of ContentLearning and Career
Development in
Neurosurgery
Values-Based Medical
Education
Ahmed Ammar
Editor
123
Learning and Career Development in Neurosurgery
Ahmed Ammar
Editor
Learning and Career
Development in
Neurosurgery
Values-Based Medical Education
Editor
Ahmed Ammar
Department of Neurosurgery
King Fahd University Hospital
Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia
ISBN 978-3-031-02077-3 ISBN 978-3-031-02078-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02078-0
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This book is dedicated to my granddaughter
Arabella (born in 2020), and to all of her
generation, in the certain belief that they will
have a future beyond our wildest imagination
and expectations. This book is just a humble
attempt to explore the long path of education
and training they will have to travel and
hopefully help us prepare them for a
better future!
The book is dedicated to Prof. Dr. Alejandra
T Rabadán, Chief of Division Neurosurgery
from the Institute of Medical Research
A. Lanari, University of Buenos Aires,
Argentine, who wrote Chapter 11 as may be
her last scientific contributions before she
passed away. We will always remember her.
May her soul rest in peace!
Preface
The main aim of this book is to take the readers to a trip to explore the new coming
future of neurosurgery and other medical specialties. It is a modest attempt to sug-
gest the means to face and positively deal with the coming emerged major changes.
The future of neurosurgery and other medical and surgical specialties is made today
and will keep reforming in order to answer medical questions that are unanswered.
There is a need to have a second thoughts to challenge the existing models of
neurosurgical and other medical specialties education and training in order to foster
creative thinking, adaptive, reflective, self-motivated lifelong learners. That is the
way to accommodate and master the new coming technologies.
Teachers give information but the receivers of this information only gain knowl-
edge when the information is processed and contextualized and used in their daily
practice.
Education and training are among the most challenging tasks in our ever-
changing world. Different generations have different culture and different goals of
life, aims, and understandings of the meaning of life and personal professional pri-
orities. These differences have to be recognized and respected in order to build
bridges with new generations. Building up a professional trust, respect, keeping,
and sustaining good communication between trainers and their trainees is vital to
the successful training programs. It should be the goal of good training programs to
help trainees embrace learning, open their minds for future changes and challenges,
and support their developing in ways that lead to happy, meaningful, successful
training, careers, and lives. In order to do this, the trainers must strive to understand
the trainees’ personalities and respect their autonomy. They should share their train-
ees’ ambitions for themselves, supporting their hopes and dreams. They should
spare no effort in training them and sharing their expert experiences with their
trainees.
Neurosurgical training and medical education should prepare the trainees for the
future that is envisaged. The authorities and education and healthcare stakeholders
should plan for future needs and qualify the needed numbers of well-trained spe-
cialized medical and surgical staff, neurosurgeon, and other medical specialists.
They are responsible for the distribution resources in a justified manner (equity).
vii
viii Preface
The aim of any training program is to provide the best possible training and edu-
cation to permit the trainees to gain good, deep, and wide knowledge and skills and
develop the right attitude to be graduated as a good, safe, ethical, and skillful train-
ees. Traditionally, the trainee has been trained to understand and work with existing
and new technology, which was expected to continue to be relevant for years after
graduation. However this is no longer true anymore, now the speed of technological
progress is such that within a few short years the once cutting-edge methods taught
to them have become ancient news, obsolete in fact. Nowadays by the time the
trainees are standing on their own feet, they are likely to find different technologies,
equipment, and devices, which they were never trained for! Educators and trainers
should foster training programs, which provide the best current medical care and
technology and are able to prepare the trainees to accommodate and use future
tools, which are beyond the scope of the trainer’s current reality. Therefore, the aim
of the training program is not only to graduate an ethical, safe, skillful, compassion-
ate, and knowledgeable practitioners but should also include sustaining and per-
petuating learners’ passion, motivation, and dedication for the life span of their
careers and the ability to face the rapid changes in information and communication
technology, sciences, and industry. Medical education and training share several
educational elements with other types of education. However, medical learning and
education has its own merits to differ from other types of education. Therefore, the
concept of Values-Based Medical Education (VsBME) has emerged. The definition
“Values and ethics are integrated in every facet of the training and education process
either within certain programs or even after graduation of such program. The aim of
implementation of Values-Based Medical Education is to secure fundamental and
holistic preparation and graduation an ethical, safe, skillful compassionate and
knowledgeable neurosurgeon/surgeon/physician but the final aim who should be
sustaining and perpetuating learners’ enthusiasm, motivation, energy, zest and intel-
ligence for the career life and be able to face the rapid changing in information and
communication technology and sciences and industry.”
In brief the objectives and aims of this book are:
1. To open a window wide enough to explore the coming new technology in medi-
cal and surgical practice.
2. As we are on the edge of major changes in daily practice, educators and curricu-
lum designers should be aware of the coming changes and have a second thought
about the whole training process.
3. The stockholders of healthy policies in different countries should be aware of
what is coming and may introduce new regulations to get the benefit of all these
technologies.
On the edge of major changes in medical practice and medical education, it is
expected that virtual or hybrid medical education, augmented reality, and virtual
universities will become the norms and prevail. It is possible to have a robotic sur-
geon or neurosurgeon to operate or examine and manage cases, and it is possible to
Preface ix
have robotic nurses and paramedical. It is very much predicted to have virtual clin-
ics. However, patients are and will always remain very much real with blood and
flesh seeking medical help to save their life and reduce their pain. Therefore,
patient’s rights, dignity, and well-being should be strictly observed and never being
compromised!
Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia Ahmed Ammar
October 31, 2021
Introduction
There are more than 60 authors from 21 different countries participated in the
writing of this interesting book. It is admirable to see more than 24 full profes-
sors and educators are joined forces and presented their valid and deep thoughts
and experiences. They also envisioned the future of training and education. This
interesting book takes the reader to a short trip to the future to explore the infor-
mation, communication, augmented reality, and medical technologies in neuro-
surgical and other specialties as far as training and education are concerned. The
different training programs should focus on producing good, safe, ethical, profes-
sional, and open-m inded graduates. We are on the edge of major changes in med-
ical practice and medical education. Therefore, the educators, training programs,
leaders, and curriculum developers have unprecedented challenges to provide the
best possible structured training for their trainees. In fact, they are racing to catch
up with rapidly emerged technologies. The neurosurgical, surgical, and medical
training and practice models have to keep up with the continuously emerged and
revolutionized technologies, as our lives changed on a swift base. I found it inter-
esting that a new term Values-Based Medical Education (VsBME) was intro-
duced in this book, which in simple term means that every step of education and
training endeavor should be based on ethics and values. Metacognition should
also be an important element of the future training programs. Adherence to the
principles of mrdical ethics and the principles of VsBME as guiding principles,
development of benevolent medical practice will prevail.
This book presents a framework on how to evolve medical education and training
by utilizing hi-tech. This book is divided into four principal components (sections):
(1) Current and traditional root analysis of the learning process, (2) Ethics and
metacognition of education, learning, and career development, (3) Several global
chellangeshinder the rapid general global development of neurosurgery, (4) Learning
in the digital era.
xi
xii Introduction
I hope this book will help the reader to open a window for the future and have
deep thoughts on how to make advantages about the combining technologies.
Department of Biomedical Sciences Franco Servadei
Humanitas University and Research Hospital
Milano, Italy
