SPED Activities

Education and Training have been of paramount importance for the Portuguese Society of Endoscopy (SPED), being the core of our concerns in the last six years. Partnering and sharing these concerns have been the strategies adopted to foster our efficacy in adressing these very important issues.

The Train The Trainers (TTT) program is an ambitious WGO project, 12 years vintage, developed for the expansion of the educational skills, of those who are responsible for teaching and training, using current educational techniques, philosophies and expertise, in the fields of endoscopy, gastroenterology and hepatology. The Portuguese Society of Endoscopy embraced a proficuous partnership with WGO over the last few years, and following a successful joint venture in the TTT Course in 2007 in Porto, we raised our challenges to run a second standard course in march this year, back to back with a brand new Advanced TTT Course featuring Leadership & Management. We felt that these two concepts would set the scene and create a provocative and mind breaking invitation for both an intensive and interactive workshop, giving wide room and opportunity for discussion and experiences crossing over. The framework of this Advanced Course included several very creative and trendy topics and questions, such as how can doctors become leaders, effective communication in medical organizations, time management, dealing with conflicts, emotions and thrills (“mind games for leaders”!), teaching clinical and cognitive competences, team building and team working, budgeting and resources allocation, quality issues for leaders and WGO as a network for leadership and management. This comprehensive and daring program revealed itself to be a further reason to rechallenge many of those previously enrolled in TTT standard Courses, gastroenterologists and endoscopists already primed in this fulfilling educational experience that WGO allows everyone to enjoy. Again, the friendly learning environment, the access to appropriate tools for planning effective communication, the acknowledgement of teamworking as essential in synergistic endeavour and understanding the crucial need for coping and overcoming disruptive threats to individual and team performances, turned out to promote an intense and enriching experience. From all over the world, participants greeted WGO and SPED for both these accomplishments, but by far, the most important outcome, should be the behavioral change, produced in individuals and institutions tha this type of coordinated efforts may be able to achieve. Beyond all the training skills and competences, TTT stands for FWF: Friendship Without Frontiers.

Guilherme Macedo
Past President of the Portuguese Society of Endoscopy
Train the Trainers Faculty