The present status of global mission trips in plastic surgery residency programs
2015
O RIGINAL A RTICLE The Present Status of Global Mission Trips in Plastic Surgery Residency Programs Trung Ho, MD, Mike Bentz, MD, y Mark Brzezienski, MS, MD, z Amanda Gosman, MD, § John Ingraham, MD, jj Michael S. Wong, MD, FACS, o and Charles Verheyden, MD, PhD Objective: The present status of global mission trips of all of the academic Plastic Surgery programs was surveyed. We aimed to provide information and guidelines for other interested programs on creating a global health elective in compliance with American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Residency Review Committee (ACGME/RRC) requirements. Design: A free-response survey was sent to all of the Plastic Surgery Residency program directors inquiring about their present policy on international mission trips for residents and faculty. Questions included time spent in mission, cases performed, sponsoring organizations, and whether cases are being counted in their resident Plastic Surgery Operative Logs (PSOL). Results: Thirty-one programs responded, with 23 programs presently sponsoring international mission trips. Thirteen programs support residents going on nonprogram-sponsored trips where the majority of these programs partner with outside organizations. Many programs do not count cases performed on mission trips as part of ACGME index case requirement. Application templates for international rotations to comply with ABPS and ACGME/RRC requirements were created to facilitate the participation of interested programs. Conclusions: Many Plastic Surgery Residency programs are sponsoring international mission trips for their residents; however, there is a lack of uniformity and administrative support in pursuing these humanitarian efforts. The creation of a dynamic centralized database will help interested programs and residents seek out the global health experience they desire and ensure standardization of the educational experience they obtain during these trips. From the Division of Plastic Surgery, Baylor Scott & White Health, TX; y Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Wiscon- sin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI; z Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chatta- nooga, TN; §Director of Pediatric Plastic Surgery, University of Cali- fornia, San Diego, CA; jj Penn State Hershey, PA; and o Division of Plastic Surgery, University of California Davis School of Medicine, CA. Received December 19, 2014. Accepted for publication January 30, 2015. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Charles Verheyden, MD, PhD, Baylor Scott & White Health, 2401 South 31st Street, Temple, TX 76508. E-mail: cverheyden@sw.org Supplemental digital contents are available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal’s Web site (www.jcraniofacial surgery.com). There are no conflicts of interest. Copyright # 2015 by Mutaz B. Habal, MD ISSN: 1049-2275 DOI: 10.1097/SCS.0000000000001697 Key Words: Global health, missions, plastic surgery residency (J Craniofac Surg 2015;26: 1088–1090) T he prevalence of surgical mission trips is increasing in both private and academic settings. 1 This has provided many medical and surgical residents exposure to different healthcare environments and hands-on experience in providing humanitarian care to an underprivileged population. The value of mission trips has recently been surveyed by Simmons et al 2 suggesting increased educational benefit for residents and better outcomes and quality of care for patients; however, the educational experience from all of the medical mission trips is not the same. The availability of mission trips at many institutions is presently limited by already-existing infrastructure, with little thought given to venturing outside traditional sites that have been established for many years in the past. This complacency can affect the available training opportu- nities provided to residents. Martiniuk et al 3 concluded in a literature review: ‘‘There is significant scope for improvement in mission planning, monitoring and evaluation as well as global and/ or national policies regarding foreign medical missions. To promote optimum performance by mission staff, training in such areas as cross-communication and contextual realities of mission sites should be provided. With the large number of missions conducted worldwide, efforts to ensure efficacy and harmonization with existing government programming and transparency are needed.’’ As interest in international mission trips increases in plastic surgery, there is an increasing need for an up-to-date and more centralized coordination of efforts to assist interested residents and programs in finding resources and support necessary to pursue their humanitarian and educational goals. Tasked with the objective to improve mission planning among all of the Plastic Surgery pro- grams, the American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons (ACAPS) Global Health Committee administered an online survey to all of the Plastic Surgery Residency programs inquiring about their present policies on international rotations and mission trips. This will establish a starting point in creating a dynamic database in which Plastic Surgery programs and sponsoring organ- izations can provide updates and necessary information for future mission trips. METHODS A 10-question free-response survey was sent to all of the Plastic Surgery Residency program directors inquiring about their present policy on international mission surgery trips for residents and faculty, summarized in Table 1. International rotation documents for Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Residency Review Committee (ACGME/RRC) and ABPS from Plastic Surgery programs with established international rotation electives were examined and The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery Volume 26, Number 4, June 2015 Copyright © 2015 Mutaz B. Habal, MD. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
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