Education during Surgical Outreach Trips in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon Learners
Background:. Visiting educator trips teach surgical care in low-resource settings to develop sustainable global surgery. Surgery has been integral in these volunteer activities, but it is unknown whether surgeon learners receive suitable education during these trips. We sought to describe the educat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wolters Kluwer
2020-07-01
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| Series: | Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Global Open |
| Online Access: | http://journals.lww.com/prsgo/fulltext/10.1097/GOX.0000000000002969 |
| _version_ | 1819143318368419840 |
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| author | Jessica I. Billig, MD, MS Jacob S. Nasser, BS William H. J. Chung Kristine A. Huynh, BS Kevin C. Chung, MD, MS |
| author_facet | Jessica I. Billig, MD, MS Jacob S. Nasser, BS William H. J. Chung Kristine A. Huynh, BS Kevin C. Chung, MD, MS |
| author_sort | Jessica I. Billig, MD, MS |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background:. Visiting educator trips teach surgical care in low-resource settings to develop sustainable global surgery. Surgery has been integral in these volunteer activities, but it is unknown whether surgeon learners receive suitable education during these trips. We sought to describe the educational experiences of surgeon learners during a visiting educator trip to better understand the perceptions of surgical outreach education.
Methods:. We conducted semistructured interviews of 18 surgeon learners participating in a visiting educator trip to 2 hospitals in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. Each interview was conducted in Vietnamese, translated into English, and transcribed. Narratives were content coded using thematic analyses.
Results:. We identified 3 main themes. First, participants noted the value in surgical outreach and believed that these trips provided a thorough understanding of surgical care from patient evaluation to complications management. Second, participants described key barriers to education. Participants desired to focus on “learning one topic in depth” rather than learning in breadth. Furthermore, they described the paucity of translated resources, a lack of English proficiency, and rudimentary translator services. Finally, participants provided substantive guidance in improving surgical outreach education, specifically regarding the limited nature of current international partnerships to foster long-term, sustainable relationships.
Conclusions:. Although Vietnamese surgeon learners felt that visiting educator trips were beneficial, they recognized important areas for improvement. The language barrier was a major impediment to effective learning with materials and lectures commonly provided in English, highlighting the need for improved language concordance. Additionally, participants desired continued relationships with the visiting surgeons to build long-term collaboration. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T12:24:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e09ac3aa448c4c36b2de5afd067c4570 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-7574 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T12:24:20Z |
| publishDate | 2020-07-01 |
| publisher | Wolters Kluwer |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Global Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-e09ac3aa448c4c36b2de5afd067c45702022-12-21T18:25:52ZengWolters KluwerPlastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Global Open2169-75742020-07-0187e296910.1097/GOX.0000000000002969202007000-00056Education during Surgical Outreach Trips in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon LearnersJessica I. Billig, MD, MS0Jacob S. Nasser, BS1William H. J. Chung2Kristine A. Huynh, BS3Kevin C. Chung, MD, MS4From the *VA/National Clinician Scholars Program, VA HSR&D Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Section of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Mich.†George Washington School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.‡Section of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.§Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester, Mich.¶Section of Plastic Surgery, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Mich.Background:. Visiting educator trips teach surgical care in low-resource settings to develop sustainable global surgery. Surgery has been integral in these volunteer activities, but it is unknown whether surgeon learners receive suitable education during these trips. We sought to describe the educational experiences of surgeon learners during a visiting educator trip to better understand the perceptions of surgical outreach education. Methods:. We conducted semistructured interviews of 18 surgeon learners participating in a visiting educator trip to 2 hospitals in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. Each interview was conducted in Vietnamese, translated into English, and transcribed. Narratives were content coded using thematic analyses. Results:. We identified 3 main themes. First, participants noted the value in surgical outreach and believed that these trips provided a thorough understanding of surgical care from patient evaluation to complications management. Second, participants described key barriers to education. Participants desired to focus on “learning one topic in depth” rather than learning in breadth. Furthermore, they described the paucity of translated resources, a lack of English proficiency, and rudimentary translator services. Finally, participants provided substantive guidance in improving surgical outreach education, specifically regarding the limited nature of current international partnerships to foster long-term, sustainable relationships. Conclusions:. Although Vietnamese surgeon learners felt that visiting educator trips were beneficial, they recognized important areas for improvement. The language barrier was a major impediment to effective learning with materials and lectures commonly provided in English, highlighting the need for improved language concordance. Additionally, participants desired continued relationships with the visiting surgeons to build long-term collaboration.http://journals.lww.com/prsgo/fulltext/10.1097/GOX.0000000000002969 |
| spellingShingle | Jessica I. Billig, MD, MS Jacob S. Nasser, BS William H. J. Chung Kristine A. Huynh, BS Kevin C. Chung, MD, MS Education during Surgical Outreach Trips in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon Learners Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Global Open |
| title | Education during Surgical Outreach Trips in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon Learners |
| title_full | Education during Surgical Outreach Trips in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon Learners |
| title_fullStr | Education during Surgical Outreach Trips in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon Learners |
| title_full_unstemmed | Education during Surgical Outreach Trips in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon Learners |
| title_short | Education during Surgical Outreach Trips in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study of Surgeon Learners |
| title_sort | education during surgical outreach trips in vietnam a qualitative study of surgeon learners |
| url | http://journals.lww.com/prsgo/fulltext/10.1097/GOX.0000000000002969 |
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