Soft Skills and Surgical Trainees 

Angeline Radjou

Professor of Surgery (Retired), Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Puducherry 605014, India.

Director of Organ Transplantation, Government of Puducherry, India 

Abstract

Surgical trainees are often burdened with acquiring 'hard' skills such as suturing a wound, draining an abscess, placing a central line, and so on. The other personality traits, such as communication, troubleshooting, timekeeping, team management, critical thinking, and professionalism - together called ‘soft-skills’ - mandatory for effectual work output, get sidelined. 

Soft-skills are innate and precede hard cognitive skills. They should be learned early to survive and succeed in personal, professional and social life. They contribute to 75% of long-term success, while only 25% is due to technical skills. Crucial soft skills are specialty-specific, linked to patient outcomes, engaging multidisciplinary teams, and improving job satisfaction in the demanding field of medicine.