International volunteerism during general surgical residency: a resident's experience

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this article is to discuss a surgical resident's experience in Kenya as a component of a custom-designed dedicated year. The academic value, clinical experience, and lessons learned will be described. Hopefully, these insights will be useful to those planning to take a similar course or for those seeking to offer such an experience at their training programs.

Setting: Bomet, Kenya.

Results: Operative experience for a 6-month period is given in Table 1. Two papers were presented at the 58th East African College of Surgeons conference. Retrospective review of the local experience in treatment of esophageal and breast cancers were reported for a 14-year period.

Conclusions: Concerning the goals and value of surgical volunteerism during residency, the greatest benefits are derived personally by the volunteer. If careful preparation is made, then it is possible to obtain meaningful research data even from a small village in East Africa. The inherent risks of third-world travel can be optimized but not erased.