Intensive medical student involvement in short-term surgical trips provides safe and effective patient care: a case review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The hierarchical nature of medical education has been thought necessary for the safe care of patients. In this setting, medical students in particular have limited opportunities for experiential learning. We report on a student-faculty collaboration that has successfully operated an annual, short-term surgical intervention in Haiti for the last three years. Medical students were responsible for logistics and were overseen by faculty members for patient care. Substantial planning with local partners ensured that trip activities supplemented existing surgical services. A case review was performed hypothesizing that such trips could provide effective surgical care while also providing a suitable educational experience.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Over three week-long trips, 64 cases were performed without any reported complications, and no immediate perioperative morbidity or mortality. A plurality of cases were complex urological procedures that required surgical skills that were locally unavailable (43%). Surgical productivity was twice that of comparable peer institutions in the region. Student roles in patient care were greatly expanded in comparison to those at U.S. academic medical centers and appropriate supervision was maintained.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This demonstration project suggests that a properly designed surgical trip model can effectively balance the surgical needs of the community with an opportunity to expose young trainees to a clinical and cross-cultural experience rarely provided at this early stage of medical education. Few formalized programs currently exist although the experience above suggests the rewarding potential for broad-based adoption.</p

Effect of rapid thermal treatments on the physical properties of Cobalt Doped ZnO Films

International audienc

Two Cases of Restavek-Related Illness: Clinical Implications of Foster Neglect in Haiti

Restaveks, or indentured foster children, are a poorly understood, vulnerable subclass of Haitian society. From 2001 to the present, a partnership between multiple US academic medical centers and Project Medishare for Haiti has held an ongoing series of mobile clinics in rural Haiti. Multiple cases of restavek-related illness were identified. At a recent pair of mobile clinics, the authors identified two restavek cases that were significantly worse off than their communal peer groups and required immediate care. Given the lack of a robust legal support to protect orphaned children in Haiti, clinicians have an important role in advocating for restaveks at the bedside. The plight of Haiti's restaveks is widely reported in the human rights literature but is not publicly recognized as an issue for community health and wellbeing among physicians. To address these health disparities, the health consequences of an entire class of neglected children must be further explored