Lifelong learning: how Australian specialist plastic surgeons maintain the highest standards

Before he goes home, he has one final professional commitment for the day; to attend the Greenslopes Private Hospital Plastic Surgery Audit Meeting.

Held at the hospital, the meeting gathers the Unit’s specialist plastic surgeons together after work, for two to three hours, to examine their surgical performance and collaborate on patient care.

Hospital unit meetings also feature professional development topics and enable surgeons to access multidisciplinary input from other doctors, surgeons and specialties. Not all hospitals audit their surgeons routinely in this way, but for those that do, most plastic surgeons attend with keen interest.

At plastic surgery unit audit meetings, the procedures that all plastic surgeons have performed are examined, breakdowns of operation types – as well as detailed, de-identified case studies of their complications and corrective revisions are prepared and confidentially presented.

Surgeons are asked to speak to their complications, and their colleagues offer questions, feedback and advice.

After your plastic surgeon’s cases of complications are presented (yes, every surgeon has patients who experience complications, from time to time), she or he discusses what they think went wrong, could have been done differently, or factors that still remain unknown or out of their control.

Their colleagues then offer their opinion, advice or questions. These meetings are informative and examine your surgeon’s operating history over the previous six months.

Most surgeons present studied for 12-15 years to achieve their fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and yet they are always grateful for the opportunity to learn from every patient, complication and collaboration with their peers.

If your specialist plastic surgeon is an ASPS member or works at a major Australian hospital, it’s likely that every few months, they too meet with their plastic surgery colleagues to undertake a similar process.

Surgeons who operate in registered licensed hospitals must first complete an accreditation process that includes a series of checks and assessment processes to ensure patient safety.

Surgeons who have not undergone the full specialist training program facilitated by the Royal Australasian College Of Surgeons cannot be accredited for major inpatient hospitals; the type of hospitals that have dedicated plastic wards, such as Greenslopes Private Hospital.

These are also the types of hospitals that are fully equipped with ICUs, emergency departments and multidisciplinary teams. They are the hospitals you want to be at if you are having a long, major procedure or require inpatient care, setting out standards of sterility, clinical consent, respectful workplace behaviours and the surgeon’s training and surgical skills. Ongoing. accredited surgeons are assessed for ongoing suitability to operate at the hospital – and their operating rights can be withdrawn if the hospital deems it appropriate.

Most people are not aware of the rigorous processes that qualified plastic surgeons continue to undergo, long after their training has finished. This involves regular auditing of their surgical results, professional development requirements and collaboration with their local plastic surgery colleagues. Plastic surgeons in Queensland participate in these, on a frequent basis both within their peer group, by their hospitals and their industry bodies. as a condition of their registration as specialists.

How your specialist plastic surgeon became a ‘real’ surgeon

Becoming a plastic surgeon is an extremely competitive and difficult process, with only one or two plastic surgeons selected into the Plastic Surgery Training Program that is facilitated by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) from hundreds of applicants in Queensland every year.

Once on the training program, plastic surgery trainees spend at least five years in Australia’s busiest, largest public hospitals, learning full time under experienced senior plastic surgeons.

During this period, they spend thousands of hours in theatre, practicing thousands of supervised operations. They perform major trauma and cancer reconstructions, become qualified in microsurgery and undergo regular assessment and performance reviews.

This role is performed as a full time plastic surgery registrar, in addition to participating in approximately 40 hours of (unpaid) professional development or study per week, for a minimum of five years. If it sounds almost humanely impossible – it nearly is. But it provides many years of not only surgical skills practice; but training your surgeon how to focus, take criticism, maintain composure under immense pressure and handle life threatening emergencies or complications.

And after they convocate (graduate) as a fully qualified specialist plastic surgeon, the ongoing learning and assessment of skills never stops.

When a plastic surgeon earns their RACS (Plast) fellowship, ongoing learning, teaching and observation is an essential part of ensuring that they maintain and update their skills, while having their performance monitored.

It is one of many reasons why choosing a surgeon with the letters ‘FRACS (Plast)’ after their name is so important. No other form of plastic surgery training in Australia comes close to offering as much training, experience and oversight when it comes to aesthetic or reconstructive surgery of the face, breasts and body.

About Dr. David Sharp:

Dr. David Sharp is an experienced specialist plastic surgeon in Brisbane, with a special interest in breast, body and facial cosmetic surgery.

With over two decades of experience in medicine, Dr. Sharp has performed over 20,000 surgical procedures in Australia and has an established surgical and non surgical practice in Brisbane.

Read more about Dr Sharp's credentials and expertise here. 

For more information and to schedule an appointment with Dr. David Sharp, please contact our patient support team at 3202 4744 or visit our online booking request form here.

This information is intended for general knowledge and should not replace personalised advice from your surgeon. Always consult with your surgeon for individual care.