Suture Kits: Training Tools for Future Surgeons
Medical students training to become surgeons will need to work with suture kits at some point in their training. Suture kits contain an assortment of standard suture tools for stitching together the edges of a wound from an injury or surgery.
A suture kit may have the following items in it:
- Suture scissors
- Suture threads
- Scalpel blades
- Suture tray
- Lidocaine
- Saline
- Medical silicone suture pad
- Needle
Stitching wounds is vital in treating injured or post-surgery patients because it prevents them from getting infected or more severely injured. Medical students must learn how to perfect the art of stitching wounds by practicing with the training tools found in suture kits. The more they practice, the better they will get at it.
Below are the top six benefits of using suture kits in medical training and practice.
1) Students Can Learn at Their Own Pace
Most suture kits contain reusable threads and needles so that students can practice suturing repeatedly. Since students learn at different paces, suture kits enable students to take all the time they need to perfect their suturing skills. They don’t have to wait until they are in a clinical setting to practice suturing.
In fact, future surgeons should get early experience in suturing before they enter a clinical setting during an internship or residency because it will give them the basic skills they need to succeed in their training. Suture kits allow students with no surgical or suture training to practice suturing in any stress-free environment they want.
2) The Freedom to Make Mistakes to Perfect Suture Skills
Many suture kits come with simulated wounded body parts for students to practice suturing them. It is usual for students to make several mistakes in the beginning, but they will eventually improve their suturing skills as they learn from their mistakes. Once that happens, students will gain enough confidence to suture human patients in a clinical setting.
Suture kits offer the freedom for students to make unlimited mistakes before suturing human patients. Since suturing is such a precise and critical medical task, it is better to get it right on a simulated body part before trying it out on a person. That way, you don’t have to worry about hurting anyone or causing them a severe medical condition from an unintentional mistake.
3) Suture Kits Provide All the Necessary Items to Begin Training
Modern suture kits come with a complete assortment of all the necessary items a surgeon would use for suturing wounded patients. You don’t have to purchase individual tools or items to train your students because these suture kits will provide everything. All you need to do is teach your students the purpose and significance of each tool inside of a suture kit.
Repeatedly using the suture kits will teach students to memorize the contents inside them. Eventually, they will know all the critical items they need to perform a proper suture procedure if they don’t have a suture kit readily available to them in the future. But for now, the suture kit offers the convenience of providing all the items so that students don’t have to search for them individually.
4) Suture Kits for Maintaining Skills with Continued Practice
Medical students will eventually feel confident in their suturing abilities. However, they will still need to maintain their skills through continuing education and practice so that they don’t forget specific critical steps of the suturing process. Suture kits will help ensure that students have every opportunity to practice and maintain their suturing skills on their own time.
Effective and flawless suturing requires exemplary skill and dexterity. Even if a student memorizes the steps involved in a typical suturing procedure, it doesn’t mean they will do it perfectly. The precise dexterity involved in suturing needs to be continuously practiced and maintained. Suture kits are the one thing that will help students keep their dexterity level high.
5) Suture Kits are Affordable and Cost-Effective
Suture kits are priced pretty affordably compared to other medical training tools on the market. The average suture kit doesn’t cost more than a few hundred dollars, which should make the kits more than affordable to purchase for your medical students. The best part is that the suture kits are reusable, so you don’t have to keep buying new ones after they are used.
Students can keep using suture kits for decades. The only items in the suture kits that you may have to replace sooner are the suture pads. As for the threads and needles, they will last for decades as long as they are used responsibly and carefully. Therefore, you can keep passing on the suture kits to new students every few years without needing to buy new ones.
6) Use the Suture Kit to Practice on Manikins
Students with access to low-fidelity or high-fidelity manikins can practice their suturing skills on them. A suture kit is fully compatible with a simulated manikin as long as the manikin is designed for wound suturing. As you shop around for various manikins, you are bound to find some that are compatible with suture training.
Check out the high-fidelity manikins, which have more sophisticated technology for simulating the appearance of a realistic wound. Manikins are a step up from simulated body parts because they give students the chance to see an entire body rather than a body part. That makes the whole experience feel more natural to students as they perfect their suturing skills on people.
Conclusion
Future surgeons will grow to love suture kits for all the benefits they offer them. Medical students and surgeons can both use suture kits to build or maintain their suturing skills to do the best suturing job possible for their future patients. If you can supply these suture kits to your students, you can help them enjoy these benefits too.