I was wondering if anyone had suggestions or experience with international medicine for US surgeons specifically - either during residency or after. Spending time abroad doing medical mission work sounds appealing, but am not sure the best way to pursue this. I'd love more information.
I have a friend who did some international rotations throughout his residency. He would use his vacation time. But he did manage to swing 1 month rotation overseas. He did it through Samaritan's Purse, World Medical Mission branch. From what he told me, it was a great experience, and he got to operate a lot. They set everything up for him, except he had to pay for it all himself. He went as a 4th year, and went to a hospital that had local surgical residents so he was able to take chief call. His being there enabled the local 4th/5th years to go for conferences and do away rotations the month he was there. The only "downside" is that it is heavily faith based, at least the application was. But there are ways to set up rotations directly with these hospitals. It just helps going with Samaritan's Purse since they set everything up for you ( flight, in country transportation, accomodations, identifying a local attending- his ended up being an american trained surgeon who had lived there 10 years). The mission hospital he went to gets several visiting surgeons from overseas (american, European, australian, canadian, south korean etc) throughout the year. Some are long term missionaries, others there only for 2 weeks. After graduation he signed up with them again for 2 years to go to another mission hospital. I think they have a post-residency program for new grads. They're paying him a small monthly stipend, but he's had to raise most of his own funding to cover himself for those 2 years.
So, in short it can be done, and I think there more surgeons than we realize doing it.
