By Julie A. Melchior, MD

I’ve been practicing hand surgery for 23 years since finishing my fellowship, in two different states. Being clinical faculty at a university working with residents and medical students, and teaching hand therapists at regional courses, has been a great learning experience for me and hopefully educational and helpful for them. Working with midlevels (PAs and NPs) and teaching them various aspects of hand and wrist anatomy, clinical examination, making a diagnosis, and radiology interpretation is a lot of fun and expands their skill set. Involvement in journal clubs has enriched my residency, fellowship and career. Mentoring young hand surgeons through various avenues is another very enjoyable aspect of my work. But one thing I have not yet done is to get involved with mission trips to other countries. I know many hand surgeons who do this kind of outreach work, as well as anesthesiologists, nurses, and surgical techs, and every single one of them talks about how enlightening and valuable it has been for them personally as well as for everyone on their team.

So why haven’t I gone? There are an assortment of reasons why I haven’t done an outreach trip yet- taking time off work that comes from vacation which would otherwise be spent with my family, the cost, the inconvenience to my partners when I am gone, concerns about the conditions where I would be working and if I were to become ill while on the trip, my not being as experienced in certain areas of hand surgery that would be needed on such a trip, questionable safety in a given geographical area… the list goes on. On the flip side, I do speak what I call “Ortho Spanish” passably, so an outreach trip to a Spanish-speaking country would be logical for me and I could be helpful to the team in that regard. Twenty-three years of experience should be useful. My organization does offer educational leave and sabbaticals that can potentially be used for a mission trip with certain specifications, although this is becoming more difficult to get approved. My two daughters are old enough now that it would be much easier for me to be gone for a week. My younger daughter has an interest in medicine–when she gets a little older, she might want to come along.

There are many avenues one can pursue to get involved in outreach trips. Hand Surgery Overseas, Orthopedics Overseas, Doctors without Borders, and many others offer such opportunities. I probably just need to “take the plunge” and do it.  If any of you have any insights or advice for me on getting involved in outreach work, I’d love to discuss it.