[National Learning Objectives Catalogue in Surgery - General Part Defining Competences of Medical School Graduates in Surgery]. / Nationaler Kompetenzbasierter Lernzielkatalog Chirurgie ­ allgemeiner Teil mit fachbezogenen ärztlichen Handlungskompetenzen am Ende des Praktischen Jahres.

Competency-based medical education is needed in order to meet the requirements of medical care currently and in the future. The basis of this are activity-based learning objectives that are merged in competency-based catalogues. A basis for a core curriculum of undergraduate medical training is the National Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Undergraduate Medical Education (NKLM). Already in 2013, for surgery, the competencies which medical students should have achieved after completing the practical year (PJ) in relation to surgical diseases were defined in the special part of the National Catalogue of Learning Objectives in Surgery (NKLC). In the now amended general part of the NKLC, interdisciplinary competencies were defined and consented from all surgical disciplines, that are relevant for all surgical disciplines and that all representatives from the different surgical disciplines should incorporate in their surgical training. The complete NKLC is now available for faculties, teachers and students for trial (available online: https://www.dgch.de/index.php?id=190&L=528). The guiding principle for the entire development process was to make sure that students gain all competencies they need when starting to work as a medical doctor and therefor to increase patient safety.

[It's all in Your Head! Influence of Mental Training on the Acquisition of Practical Skills in Surgical Training]. / Itʼs all in Your Head! Einfluss des Mentalen Trainings auf den Kompetenzerwerb praktischer Fertigkeiten in der chirurgischen Lehre.

INTRODUCTION: Practical skills are very important for medical doctors, but, for many practical skills, the optimal teaching form is not yet known. Surgical education and training can be compared to high performance sports, since complex movements and differentiated coordination have to be united perfectly in both disciplines. Thus, it would be useful to integrate into medical training methods that have been established and analysed in detail in sports sciences. The aim of the present study was to perform an analysis of the comparative effectiveness of mental training and the traditional "see one, do one" approach - with respect to both the acquired expertise, as well as the personnel and material costs. METHODS: Third year undergraduate medical students were randomised into two groups while participating in a practical skills training session: The control group was taught using the "see one, do one" approach, but the intervention group used mental training. As an example of a complex surgical skill, wound care was selected, as it consists of applying a local anaesthetic, the sterile covering and preparation of a wound, as well as performing a simple interrupted suture. The learning success was recorded at 3 measuring times: Directly after the training in an introductory OSCE (time point 1), two weeks after training using a free recall test (time point 2) as well as 5 - 14 weeks after training in an overall OSCE (time point 3). RESULTS: 123 students participated in the study. At the first time point, the students of the "mental training" group showed significantly better results in performing the sterile covering and wound preparation ("see one, do one" group 67.4% + 11.1; mental training group 71.6 + 10.6, p = 0.035). At other stations and at other time points there were no significant differences between the two groups. The cost analysis shows a potential saving of 4067.68 € per semester due to the resource-saving handling of materials and personnel. CONCLUSION: Mental training represents a teaching method that can be used with good results in curricular teaching in the field of surgery, which goes hand in hand with a reduction in personnel and material costs.