{"id":3382,"date":"2017-09-22T03:55:15","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T03:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2017-10-25T03:57:38","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T03:57:38","slug":"why-us-trained-surgeons-often-arent-ready-for-humanitarian-work-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/2017\/09\/22\/why-us-trained-surgeons-often-arent-ready-for-humanitarian-work-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Why US-Trained Surgeons Often Aren’t Ready For Humanitarian Work Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I am not a surgeon. Yes, I can readily perform some of the most urgent and lifesaving procedures, like colostomy and Cesarean section. But a surgeon, I am not. In this light, allow me to make some observation about North American surgeons in an international, low-resource context.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Surgical needs and resources in such settings differ significantly from wealthier contexts. Where I volunteer in Angola, for example, the majority of surgical needs are in orthopedics, OB\/GYN, and urology. North American-trained general surgeons, by contrast, rarely have any significant experience or skill in these fields. General surgery<\/em> as a specialty has all but forfeited any procedural skill outside of the abdomen. This is to a degree understandable. Given the plethora of surgeons and rapid development of surgical knowledge, it is only natural that surgeons begin to concentrate their skills into sub-specialties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But this phenomenon does little to prepare surgeons for the broad skills needed in low-resource, low-personnel settings, as recently pointed out in the NPR discourse, Why U.S.-Trained Surgeons Often Aren’t Ready For Humanitarian Work Abroad<\/em>. <\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All is not lost, however. General surgeons are an intelligent, highly motivated lot. Their ability to rapidly learn new skills is astounding. With proper drive and mentorship in a high-volume context, many surgeons in a matter of months can acquire the broad skills fitting of the title general surgeon<\/em>. Should this transformation be your desire, please continue this conversation with me<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I am not a surgeon. Yes, I can readily perform some of the most urgent and lifesaving procedures, like colostomy and Cesarean section. But a surgeon, I am not. In this light, allow me to make some observation about North American surgeons in an international, low-resource context.   Surgical needs and resources in such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-low-resource-healthcare-pearls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}