Are you a 4th year UBC medical student interested in learning more about global surgical care? In this 2-week global surgery elective course, you will have the opportunity to explore global surgery with the support of an experienced BGSC faculty member as a preceptor. Register today!
What is Global Surgery?
Global surgery aims to build capacity in surgical care to address surgical challenges and contribute to solutions in low-resource settings globally. As a cross-cutting discipline, it includes specialties such as general surgery, and other surgical specialties, such obstetrics, orthopedics, nursing and allied health care professionals.
Course Details
This 2-week elective will consist of 2 online modules, which take about 8h each to complete. These modules will be complemented by a quiz. The first module will define global surgery, its place in global health and its evolution in the past decades. For the second module, the student will have the option of learning about a key aspect of global surgery.
The options for the second module are:
- The global burden of surgical disease and disability
- Trauma: a global pandemic
- Global maternal mortality
The student will be assigned a preceptor, who is faculty member of the Branch for Global Surgical Care and has extensive experience in global surgery. The preceptor will conduct two meetings with the student, one at the end of Week 1 and one at the end of Week 2. These meetings will serve to reinforce the concepts learned, review the assignment and discussions, discuss additional aspects of global surgery the student may be interested in, and potentially develop further areas for research in global surgery with the Branch for Global Surgical Care.
Learning Objectives
- Develop a deep understanding of the importance of surgical care in global health
- Understand the history of global surgery
- Understand who the main actors in global surgical care
- Quantify the gap in surgical care globally
- Identify the areas of surgical care where the gap is the widest
Academic Activities
- Online modules: This consists of 8h of reading didactic material, illustrated by examples and case studies. Additional optional readings are also provided to the student.
- Discussion: There is a moderated discussion board associated with every module, in which the student is strongly encouraged to participate. It will allow them to review posts from previous learners and gain from rich and diverse backgrounds and experience in global health issues.
- Quiz: Each module ends with a multiple-choice quiz (10 questions) that the student will have to complete. The student can take it as many time as they wish. It will be ungraded.
- Debriefing with faculty: The student will have two opportunities to have a one-to-one conversation with their supervisor, which can be used to develop critical thinking in academic global surgery.
Registration Details
- Eligibility: Current 4th year student in the UBC MD Undergraduate Program
- For more details on how to apply, please visit: mdprogram.med.ubc.ca/visiting-student-elective-program