I am planning to work at Hospital 175 in Vietnam with two hand surgery attendings. We will be performing primarily hand and trauma surgery for the patients. Additionally, we will be teaching physicians and residents on site. As we will be in Vietnam for a little over a week and patients have already been indicated for surgery, we will be able to make a large impact, operating and teaching over several days. We will review patient cases pre-operatively with our whole team, confirm the operative indications and that there will be sufficient post-operative care, and perform their surgeries with local physicians. This will make a vast difference for the local physicians, the patients, as well as our American team. In the short term, we will be providing patients with the care they need and deserve, however in the long term, these patients will be more functional and be able to better contribute to their communities. The physicians we teach will gain surgical skills and clinical knowledge to last a lifetime. Lastly, this trip will make a difference in my life by giving me the opportunity to learn from patients of different backgrounds and by laying the foundation for my future international work.
We will be serving the population served by Hospital 175. Although the hospital is in Ho Chi Minh City, we know that patients come from throughout Vietnam to receive care at this hospital. We will be working closely with the local surgeons who will be able to take the skills and knowledge learned from our lectures and from operating with us back to their communities to leverage our impact. This population and specific hospital was chosen as we are building out a partnership with our residency program and attempting to create a partnership that is long lasting. I and future residents and attendings from our institution will maintain this partnership and continue to make trips to teach and operate at Hospital 175.
The goal of our partnership with Hospital 175 is to create a long lasting relationship, making it simple for our residents and attendings to teach and operate at Hospital 175. This initial visit will allow us to gain momentum and lay the foundation for this partnership. As we will be operating and teaching for a week, we believe we can make a large impact. Our lectures and the skills learned by local clinicians will leverage our impact, as these clinicians can bring these tools and lessons back to their community, residents, and patients. We believe that our impact from this trip, will not only be realized in the short term in getting patients back to their jobs and communities, but that the effects will be long term given the new partnership we will have created and the ability for local physicians to continue to use and teach their new skills and knowledge.
We worked at Military Hospital 175 in Ho Chi Minh City. The patients lived in and around Ho Chi Minh City, however some patients had to travel much further for their care. We also did a lot of teaching (both in the operating room and in the classroom). The surgeons at Military Hospital 175 were very eager to learn. We hope that we not only helped the patients were treated but also leveraged our effect through teaching in the OR and didactic sessions.
