Surgical Society: General Surgery Chair

I am Harkirat Dhaliwal, a 4th year medical student, and I want to run for the general surgery chair as I believe I can use my experience from my involvement with the surgical society throughout the past 4 years as both a member and a committee member to help improve the general surgery sector of the surgical society. I was a part of the plastic surgery subcommittee, and was involved with the arrangement of the plastic surgery conference held this year which was massively successful. I learnt a lot about how to not only run a conference, but also how to organise events. This year in my first clinical year, I came across a number of general surgeons who would make. fantastic speakers for general surgery events, and I propose that I would help organise events that not only describe the process of becoming a general surgeon and what the career entails, but also what people should know before they apply for surgical training and what life is like away from the operating theatre, enabling members to fully understand the role of general surgeons and their lifestyle away from work. 

Hi I’m Zahra and I am running for general surgery chair! 

General surgery is one of the largest surgical specialties in the UK and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to run for chair. My reasons for running distil into my desire to broaden access to surgery showcasing the wide variety of subspecialties encompassed by general surgery. I am keen to get students more involved and hands-on with surgery, I aim to facilitate this through in-theatre taster sessions and mentorship schemes for those interested in research. Furthermore, I would like to host simulated and surgeon led workshops placing emphasis on laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgery as well as novel and up-coming techniques such as virtual modelling.  In these sessions budding surgeons can get a more holistic picture of the realities of surgery- which are rarely touched upon in preclinical years. 

My experience: 

• Vice-chair UCL Oncology society (Medsoc): I have hosted speaker events as well as helped to implement a new mentoring scheme for iBSc students. 

• Currently organising the National Undergraduate Oncology Conference working with subcommittees across the UK. 

• I have been supervised by the general surgery team at UCLH. I would like to bring guest speakers in and help other students to make such connections. 

I believe that I have the leadership and management skills to take on the role of general surgery chair and organise many exciting new schemes and events!