Dominican Republic Overseas Surgical Rotation, San Cristobal, DR
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed a program in which surgical residents in their third year of training will complete a surgical rotation in the Hospital of Juan Pablo Pina, located in the town of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. Since 2005, every one of our surgical residents has rotated in the Dominican Republic. This life-changing experience gives young surgeons the opportunity to provide surgical care to rural communities and to share knowledge and expertise with physicians in the countries they visit. Working with limited resources and without the comforts of most modern technology, they gain valuable skills assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and providing much needed care to the underserved population.
Goals and Objectives
- To provide valuable service to a developing community and to assist with teaching and training;
- To acquire operative experience in the setting of limited resources;
- To gain cultural competency via a sustainable effort in healthcare development;
- To enhance the spirit of humanitarianism and community for each participant;
- To develop an exchange that will strengthen and mature over time, helping to make continuous strides in order to improve health care delivery systems throughout the world.
Residents’ Experience
"I think the value of becoming comfortable performing surgery with less at your disposal is an important lesson to learn-more so than I originally appreciated. I gained so much perspective during the Dominican Republic rotation. The residents and attendings I worked with were all nice and very welcoming. Everyone was genuinely enthusiastic about teaching and allowing me to operate as much as possible."
Robert Sweeney, PGY 3, in 2014
“We performed operations that we never perform in the United States: elective open cholecystectomy (through a 3 cm incision), and IM nailing. We saw low cost creative problem solving to adapt to environment. We experienced what surgical practice is in resource poor settings.”
Anne Stey, PGY 3, in 2013