MSF

[premed1234567891011]

I'm an MS1 with a strong desire to work abroad for a significant portion of my career. Doctors Without Borders is something I've been considering for years now. My question is how do physicians manage to incorporate longer work abroad experiences into their careers? Obviously I'll have loans to pay off, but it seems like MSF and other work/volunteer abroad gigs would be much easier to do the younger and more energetic you are.

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[InternistDO]

An MSF recruiter was talking to one of my classmates and mentioned to him that it was difficult to recruit American medical students because of all the loans doctors had at the beginning of their careers. Apparently there were discussions for how to offer loan forgiveness type programs, but I don't think there's a huge push because they also get lots of docs from Europe and Canada where its less of an issue.

Depending on your debt and how much money you make as an attending and how much your spouse makes (if you're married/living together), you may be able to quickly pay off your debt (3-4 years) while working locally and living frugally, while doing shorter trips during that time. Then you could transition into doing longer term work like MSF. I'm sure there are also academic positions that would incorporate international work (Paul Farmer teaches at Harvard, for example).