Canadian Docs Aren't Left in Stitches

You might like to think that your doctor would know how to suture a bleeding head wound, if not perform a handy emergency tracheotomy on the subway or in a bus like everybody does on TV (see: Skeet Ulrich in the first episode of "Jericho").

Well, not so much. A Canadian studyfinds that medical school graduates often haven't the foggiest idea how to perform basic surgical procedures.

From a press release:

The researchers gathered their results from surveys of 123 recentmedical school graduates and 55 surgeons. The results show that therespondents felt there are at least 8 to 10 surgical skills that arehighly relevant to current medical practices; however, the averagemedical graduates will achieve proficiency in only three of them.

"Youwant to believe that med graduates feel comfortable with their basicsurgery skills, but many of them don't. And this is important becauseit's very likely that they will have to use these skills at some pointin their careers," [a researcher] added.