With the support of the Surgical Association of Karaganda Region, under the guidance of the Head of the Department of Surgical Diseases No. 2, Professor Turgunov E.M., from November 2016 to February 2017 was conducted an Olympiad in surgery for medical students of 3-6 courses of Karaganda State Medical University.

The online registration was available on the web-site of SAKR (Surgical Association of Karaganda Region). In total 171 students were registered, 105 of them took part in the Olympiad.

The Olympiad was divided into 4 rounds, two of which were focused on testing of theoretical knowledge and 2 rounds – on practical skills.

The first round was on 11 November 2016 and represented in the form of a test via multimedia technologies. Usage of feedback consoles for registration of responses allowed conducting a test rapidly and getting the resultsimmediately. Thus out of 100 students were chosen only 30 who had the highest results in surgery and topographic anatomy.

The second round took place on 14 November 2016 in the form of a written test, which included various questions in surgery, surgical techniques and visual diagnostics. According to the results of the second round, 16 students entered the next round for evaluation of practical skills.

The third round was on 9 December 2016 at the Practical Skills Center of KSMU. The participants had to demonstrate their skills in knot-tying in wounds, endoscopic, intestinal, and vascular suturing. It is good to know that most students consciously accepted the task fulfillment and had been taking extra classes at the Centre of Practical Skills in order to develop their surgical skills. Only 6 students managed to enter the last round of the Olympiad, namely the surgical interns Dinara Amanzholova (6012), Samat Kuanyshev (6019), Arlan Sagirov (6018) and 5-year students of “General Medicine” specialty Ekaterina Lyalina (5097 ОМ), Ilmira Zhiganshina (5087 ОМ) and Valentin Zolotarev (5082 ОМ).

The last round took place on 10 February 2017. Each participant had to perform an appendectomy in an experimental animal. In the opinion of the participants, the last round was the most interesting, and each participant showed excellent theoretical knowledge and practical skills. In addition, Ermek Meyramovich told about the possibility to conduct research activities at the vivarium and work with the experimental animals – real surgery education through science. This year the winner of the Olympiad has become the 5-year student Valentin Zolotarev; the surgical intern Dinara Amanzholova took the second place; the 5-year student Ilmira Zhiganshina took the third place.

We are happy about the fact that for the second year at our University has been conducted the Olympiad in surgery, and that the students are given an opportunity to compete, share knowledge, develop their practical skills and achieve great results. We hope that the University Olympiad in surgery will enable students to take part in the international competitions in the future and become a good tradition in KSMU.

Participants of Olympiad:

Valentin Zolotarev

Dinara Amanzholova

Ilmira Zhiganshina

Ekaterina Lyalina

Samat Kuanyshev

Arlan Sagirov