Our team has developed a long-standing relationship with the surgeons and staff at Hospital 175. We plan to continue our teaching activities - in the OR and in the classroom. We will be in Ho Chi Minh City for a week and will operate in the mornings (Monday through Friday) and conduct classroom sessions, morbidity and mortality conference, and case presentations/conferences in the afternoons. The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery is large and has many trainees and surgeons. As such, the impact will be recognized by many.
The patients of the Vietnam community will greatly benefit from this project. The catchment area of Hospital 175 is vast and continues to grow. A great number of trainees and surgeons in the Department of Orthoapedic Surgery are involved in the OR and clinical teaching. We interface frequently with other staff (nurses, therapists, anesthesiologists) throughout the trip which will leverage the impact of the project.
This population was chosen given the large burden of trauma from road traffic and work related injuries. There is a great number of fractures and other traumatic injuries that aren't always treated in a timely manner and/or according to evidence based practice. We will continue to teach the Hospital 175 these principles with the goal of improving care and getting community members back to work and caring for their families.
We expect to conduct 6-8 surgeries a morning and 4 lectures in the afternoon each day. There are 15-20 trainees in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and even more attending surgeons and staff who we will include in teaching. Further, when we travel to Hospital 175, we learn a vast amount from the trainees, surgeons, and staff as well. There are many techniques and teachings that we take back to our institutions and teach to the trainees at our own academic medical centers.
Although we were in clinic and operated on several patients from the community surrounding Hospital 175, the greatest impact comes from our teaching and collaboration with the residents, trainees, and teams at Hospital 175. Each year we return, the residents have demonstrated the skills they learned previously and the greater number of patients they have been able to care for independently. This year, the hospital organized a hand surgery conference that was attended by surgeons from around Vietnam. There were several trainees in the audience as well and thus I feel our impact was magnified.
