Surgical Society: Plastic Surgery Chair

UCL Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (PRAS) was here for me since Year 1.

I am running to be your chair to guarantee UCL PRAS continues to support students wishing to pursue a career in this deeply fascinating and wide-ranging surgical field and to provide inspiration for those that are unsure what future path to take.

Personal experience:

• Academic lead and sponsorship officer for UCL PRAS (2022-2023). Our International conference was one of the largest single-specialty conferences in UCL Surgical Society history. I have experience in organising and coordinating educational events, and have built an extensive network with key sponsors.
• Presented plastic surgery and wider medical research articles at national specialist-led conferences via oral and poster formats.
• Several plastic surgery manuscripts accepted for publication or in the process of peer review.
• Surgical Sciences iBSc through which I developed strong links with the Royal Free plastic surgery department.

Trust experience to deliver:

• A user-friendly, reliable platform that enables UCL students to participate in plastic surgery-related research.
• A plastic surgery-specific shadowing scheme to provide faster, more reliable shadowing opportunities.
• Stronger collaboration with plastic surgeons across UCL teaching sites and beyond.
• Regular teaching events.

The P in my name speaks for itself. Vote Petko to shape UCL PRAS into the hub for plastic surgery research, training and collaboration.

My interest in plastic surgery was sparked by attending the SurgSoc course in Plastics and shadowing surgeons at the Royal Free Hospital. I found the experience incredibly inspiring and have been dedicated to the field ever since. Attending the International Plastics Conference further solidified my interest and provided me with valuable insights into the latest developments in the field.

If elected as Plastic Surgery Chair, I would be honoured to have the opportunity to share my enthusiasm for plastic surgery with other members of the society. My experience as a mentee through Surgsoc has taught me the importance of guidance and support, and I would be delighted to offer that same level of assistance to others interested in the field. I am particularly excited about engaging and inspiring younger members and helping to shape the future of plastic surgery.

In addition, I have a deep appreciation for the importance of surgical society. I believe that as Chair, I would be able to contribute significantly to bringing others into the society and promoting the importance of surgical society to a wider audience.

I am grateful for the opportunity to put my name forward for this role and to share my love for plastic surgery and the surgical society with others. If elected, I will work to make valuable contributions to this community and the field of plastic surgery more broadly.

I'm interested in plastic surgery because of the incredible things that I have seen it can achieve. One of the examples that stuck out to me, was the facial reconstruction work done on young victims living in war zones. This work greatly impacted their lives and I was inspired by these surgeons. If I was to be plastic surgery chair I would aim to offer a surgical skills course, work with the shadowing scheme to increase opportunities for students to directly interact with plastic surgeons and collaborate with one of the other specialities. I was thinking a talk held with Women in Surgery would be a good idea. I've been part of the Surgical Society for a year and now want to help run all the awesome events I took part in this year. I volunteered to help with INUGSC and helped with the workshops being run for sixth-formers. Next year I would like to be even more involved with surgical society. I took part in the surgical skills course done with the Royal Free and thought it was a wonderful experience. I think it is so important that we as aspiring surgeons get access to oppurtunities such as these where we can actually practice and carry out the practical skills needed to become a surgeon. The Women in Surgery conference was another event I really enjoyed and helped me realise the importance of hearing what surgeons have to say in order to get good insight into the career. As plastic surgery chair I will work hard to make sure events such as these take place and run smoothly.