Informal mini-tutorials in the operating theatre

Surgery is often protracted, and the anaesthesia may proceed without significant event for a number of hours. Such periods when consultant and trainee are together, are opportunities for informal mini-tutorials. Indeed, these are what many consultants and trainees understand by the term theatre teaching. Trainees may deny that there has been any teaching on a list, unless a mini-tutorial has taken place! Two studies have found that anaesthetists believe that the ability to relate practice to basic science theory is a marker of excellence. 1 , 2 Theatre teaching can help put basic science into a clinical context, and this aspect of learning should be a major focus for the in-theatre mini-tutorial.