- Joined
- Jan 31, 2007
- Messages
- 14
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first of all, i want to thank everyone for all of their thoughtful, insightful and personable advice. i'm so appreciative to have found a surgery-dedicated forum where i can field any question, and have my hopes of receiving an honest, experienced answer satisfied 5 or even 10-fold! many thanks to all 😀
so now i have yet another question about the intersection between surgery and OTHER interests. people always portray surgery as so wholly demanding in and of itself that no time or space is left in a surgeon's world to care about anything else ...
it's a somewhat complex topic, but i'll try to make it brief. most of us are probably aware that primary care is supposedly the best, most effective way to address the needs of the underserved. fam practice, medicine, peds -- in all of these specialties, it's incredibly easy to find people and programs dedicated to serving inner city/immigrant/homeless/minority/impoverished/rural/global communities.
but this strikes me as odd -- poor people, whether domestically or internationally -- need surgery just as much as rich people do. perhaps even more. and considering that everyone claims that the best HO is a 3rd-5th year surgery resident (with which i agree whole-heartedly), why don't these two groups of people intersect more? the best trained working with the neediest? what makes better sense?
so i'm wondering whether it's possible to have a career in surgery and still regularly work with disenfranchised communities and populations, both domestically and abroad?
of course, i've heard of the wonderful plastic surgeon who takes a month every year to fix cleft palates in nigeria, but i'm looking for something with more longitudinal scope, and ideally, something you could do domestically in your career rather than having to take your vacation time to work abroad in order to do good things. i'd prefer to do good things at home *as well as* abroad...
i hope this makes sense ... i fear i might be rambling ... thanks in advance for reading 😳
so now i have yet another question about the intersection between surgery and OTHER interests. people always portray surgery as so wholly demanding in and of itself that no time or space is left in a surgeon's world to care about anything else ...
it's a somewhat complex topic, but i'll try to make it brief. most of us are probably aware that primary care is supposedly the best, most effective way to address the needs of the underserved. fam practice, medicine, peds -- in all of these specialties, it's incredibly easy to find people and programs dedicated to serving inner city/immigrant/homeless/minority/impoverished/rural/global communities.
but this strikes me as odd -- poor people, whether domestically or internationally -- need surgery just as much as rich people do. perhaps even more. and considering that everyone claims that the best HO is a 3rd-5th year surgery resident (with which i agree whole-heartedly), why don't these two groups of people intersect more? the best trained working with the neediest? what makes better sense?
so i'm wondering whether it's possible to have a career in surgery and still regularly work with disenfranchised communities and populations, both domestically and abroad?
of course, i've heard of the wonderful plastic surgeon who takes a month every year to fix cleft palates in nigeria, but i'm looking for something with more longitudinal scope, and ideally, something you could do domestically in your career rather than having to take your vacation time to work abroad in order to do good things. i'd prefer to do good things at home *as well as* abroad...
i hope this makes sense ... i fear i might be rambling ... thanks in advance for reading 😳