Surgical education in the balance: can the quality of clinically based learning be improved?

A qualitative evaluation of basic surgical education at four Trust hospitals in England involved non‐participant observations and semistructured interviews of senior house officers (SHOs) in general surgery and orthopaedic surgery, and their surgeon educators (SEs). It found that the traditional notion of learning by apprenticeship still applied in the specialty of surgery. Many surgeons believed that changes in legislation, policies, strategies and service delivery were eroding opportunities for service‐based learning, with adverse long‐term effects on surgical education and standards. However, individual SEs, and one Trust in particular, provided evidence that the quality of learning in surgical practice can be improved.