Healthcare professionals are not immune to the psychological toll of trauma.

This was a key message discussed by Captain Ian Young during his lecture at the 94th Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress in early May.

“Surgeons and health professionals in general think they are immune because they deal with trauma or blood, guts and gore,” he said.

The orthopaedic surgeon spoke of environments he operated in and the non-technical skills required to ensure rest, recovery and readiness were optimised. 

During his lecture, he also drew parallels between his service and that of surgeon Colonel Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop, who the lecture was named after.

“It linked closely back to the Dunlop legacy of community service, academic pursuit and care for veterans' health,” Captain Young said.

“It’s about how we manage that transition so our surgeons can sustain a long career.”

His lecture was called ‘Surgeons between conflicts: Rest, recovery and readiness for the next deployment’.

“It looked at the period between when we come back from operational environments, right up until when we go again,” Captain Young said.

He said it focused on those areas because “if we're not ready to go when called upon, then we fail”.

“We are very good at looking after our patients, but historically, military medicine has not been focused on looking after the minds and wellbeing of the people doing the treating,” Captain Young said.

'You can be the best surgeon in a tertiary hospital, but if you can't adapt your technical skill sets to raw, open, damage-control surgery, you won't succeed in an austere environment.'

On his deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, Captain Young performed life-saving surgeries on severe casualties.

“We were dealing with devastating blast injuries and high-velocity gunshot wounds that required immediate life-saving surgery, where you rely purely on raw clinical judgement to stop the bleeding and save a life before the patient slips away,” he said.

Captain Young said modern junior surgeons were reliant on advanced hospital technology that did not exist in the field.

“You can be the best surgeon in a tertiary hospital, but if you can't adapt your technical skill sets to raw, open, damage-control surgery, you won't succeed in an austere environment,” he said.

To be invited to deliver the lecture, a surgeon must be selected by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons History and Military Surgery sections for outstanding contribution or insight into military medicine and veteran health.

“When I was first approached about doing it, I was quite taken aback and humbled that I’d even be considered for it, let alone asked to deliver it,” Captain Young said.

He said delivering an address named after Weary Dunlop was easily one of the greatest highlights of his career.

“It is an incredible privilege to be invited by the college to give this address, especially knowing the calibre of the senior military surgeons who have stood at this podium before me,” Captain Young said.