One of the great benefits of spending time in a place like Kijabe is the opportunity to “cross train”. I am a general surgery resident. But this week, I have learned a bit about being a urologist, an otolaryngologist, and an obstetrician.
Specialists are in very short supply in the developing world, and therefore, one needs to remain flexible and willing to learn new trades in order to take care of the patient in front of you. It strikes me that, as American surgery continues to be further compartmentalized into narrower and narrower sub-specialties, international surgery provides the opportunity to remain not only a true “general surgeon”, but a medical doctor- treating the wide range of non-surgical complaints that find their way into the surgical clinic.