Volunteering During Residency

[Rangers13]

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Sup fam

PGY-2 here in a well-established EM residency. Does anyone have any specific experience with volunteering during residency? Which organization did you go through? What was your time-commitment (on the order of weeks to months)? Most-importantly, what was your role with said organization?

Any and all recommendations / thoughts / comments / concerns / gripes would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[evilbooyaa]

Why would you volunteer during residency?

 

[enalli]

If you're volunteering during residency, it better be about something you're passionate about. Start from there and see what exists or work on making it exist.

 

[Jlaw]

 

[Angry Birds]

Spend your free time with family.

 

[Birdstrike]

Sup fam

PGY-2 here in a well-established EM residency. Does anyone have any specific experience with volunteering during residency? Which organization did you go through? What was your time-commitment (on the order of weeks to months)? Most-importantly, what was your role with said organization?

Any and all recommendations / thoughts / comments / concerns / gripes would be appreciated. Thanks!

I commend your intentions to volunteer for charity during residency. Be aware however, you'll be providing massive amounts of uncompensated time caring for the poor, in residency.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

Would be cool if we could somehow write off all that charity care on our taxes.

I commend your intentions to volunteer for charity during residency. Be aware however, you'll be providing massive amounts of uncompensated time caring for the poor, in residency.

 

[WilcoWorld]

Sup fam

PGY-2 here in a well-established EM residency. Does anyone have any specific experience with volunteering during residency? Which organization did you go through? What was your time-commitment (on the order of weeks to months)? Most-importantly, what was your role with said organization?

Any and all recommendations / thoughts / comments / concerns / gripes would be appreciated. Thanks!

Select something that both brings you joy and can fit with your schedule. I would recommend going with something that's local and has flexible hours.

A free clinic where you can supervise/teach med students is a great option for someone with your skillset.

OTOH - if you've simply got an altruistic itch that needs to be scratched, consider visiting givewell.org they vet & rate charities according to their impact & utility.

 

[deleted109597]

Pretty vague question.
Most NGOs will require time commitments that are incompatible with residency training, unless you're in Europe or Australia.
If you're talking about local free clinics or whatever, then you'll have to ask those.
If you're talking about medical tourism, where you go somewhere for a week, I strongly suggest you reconsider. Those programs invariably do more harm than good.

 

[WilcoWorld]

If you're talking about medical tourism, where you go somewhere for a week, I strongly suggest you reconsider. Those programs invariably do more harm than good.

I'm inclined to agree with this, especially when you factor in the opportunity cost compared to working for a week at home and then donating that money towards buying mosquito nets for malaria endemic areas (or something similar for the region that the doctor would otherwise visit). That said, this is a pretty strong claim - can you back it up with some evidence/references?

 

[Psai]

Why work for free? You're already stressed and have no time as it is.

 

[deleted109597]

I'm inclined to agree with this, especially when you factor in the opportunity cost compared to working for a week at home and then donating that money towards buying mosquito nets for malaria endemic areas (or something similar for the region that the doctor would otherwise visit). That said, this is a pretty strong claim - can you back it up with some evidence/references?

SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research
Perceptions of short-term medical volunteer work: a qualitative study in Guatemala
Hoping to Help, The Promises and Pitfalls of Global Health Volunteering
Did we do good? NGOs, conflicts of interest and the evaluation of short-term medical missions in Sololá, Guatemala. - PubMed - NCBI
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17441692.2017.1346695
OPINION: The white tourist’s burden
Also, personal experience in Africa and the South Pacific. If you go for a short time, you effect no longterm change. You make them dependent on you.
Having known people trying to run longterm projects in both of those areas, you wouldn't believe the number of emails asking for travel to be paid, or housing, or both, as well as food, and any number of things. Face it, we are spoiled. You want to help? Donate money, or be willing to go for a long time. 2 weeks isn't even long enough to learn the nurses names.

 

[WilcoWorld]

The BMC study would appear to suggest it's an open question:

Results
Informants commonly identified a need for increased access to medical services in Guatemala, and many believed that short-term medical volunteers are in a position to offer improved access to medical care in the communities where they serve. Informants most frequently cited appropriate patient selection and attention to payment systems as the best means to avoid creating dependence on foreign aid. The most frequent suggestion to improve short-term medical volunteer work was coordination with and respect for local Guatemalan healthcare providers and their communities, as insufficient understanding of the country's existing healthcare resources and needs may result in perceived harm to the recipient community.

Conclusion
The perceived impact of short-term medical volunteer projects in Guatemala is highly variable and dependent upon the individual project. In this exploratory study, project characteristics were identified that are consistently perceived to be either positive or negative. These findings have direct implications for anyone involved in the planning and execution of short-term medical volunteer projects, including local and foreign medical team members, project planners and coordinators, and health authorities. Most importantly, this preliminary study suggests avenues for future study and evaluation of the impact of short-term medical volunteer programs on local health care services.

 

[gro2001]

What Doc McNinja says is definitely the consensus among global health professionals. It's hard to develop a program that's impactful, efficient, responsible and sustainable. Generally it's impossible outside of a significant commitment to an established professional structure (typically either one of the better large NGOs, an academic program, or a government agency). Anything else should raise skepticism and is almost certainly on the medical tourism side of the spectrum.

 

[Hamhock]

What Doc McNinja says is definitely the consensus among global health professionals. It's hard to develop a program that's impactful, efficient, responsible and sustainable. Generally it's impossible outside of a significant commitment to an established professional structure (typically either one of the better large NGOs, an academic program, or a government agency). Anything else should raise skepticism and is almost certainly on the medical tourism side of the spectrum.

Agreed.

Additionally, I have found the underlying motivation for international "volunteering" to be either empty or suspect, most of the time; other times, it is due to a lack of public health or policy education.

HH

 

[deleted109597]

Agreed.

Additionally, I have found the underlying motivation for international "volunteering" to be either empty or suspect, most of the time; other times, it is due to a lack of public health or policy education.

HH

They've gotta have something to write in their personal statement.

 

[deleted109597]

What Doc McNinja says is definitely the consensus among global health professionals. It's hard to develop a program that's impactful, efficient, responsible and sustainable. Generally it's impossible outside of a significant commitment to an established professional structure (typically either one of the better large NGOs, an academic program, or a government agency). Anything else should raise skepticism and is almost certainly on the medical tourism side of the spectrum.

Yep. So, in residency, if you have a month off and are able to plug into a program established by your program or some other current entity where you simply support them in that (ie, go teach residents there ultrasound or something), then it's reasonable. You don't need to go anywhere to be "the doctor" for that short of a time period. You can maybe help by being a teacher for a month.
Everything else is going to want more than a month. It takes that long just to learn how they practice in places. Showing up somewhere expecting to give vanc, zosyn, and 30cc/kg while following the surviving sepsis campaign is simply ludicrous. They're not going to have any of those things. Plus, not knowing how to treat dengue or lepto adds to the problem.
The US system doesn't allow us to help as much with MSF as physicans unless you basically quit your job. 6 month assignments are the norm.