SURG 560: Global Surgical Care Field Practicum

In the field practicum, students will design and implement a global surgical care project, “grounding” their knowledge and skills attained in the other courses of the program.

Credits: 6

Prerequisites: SURG 510, SURG 512, SURG 514, SURG 516, and SURG 517. (SURG 517 and SURG 560 can be taken concurrently).

It will enable students to synthesize the knowledge gained from the coursework, transfer their knowledge to one aspect of global surgical care practice, and demonstrate achievement of the Master’s program learning objectives. A high level written report will be the main evaluated component and could well provide the basis for a publication or for a major conference presentation.

Upon completion of this course, the learner will:

  • conceptualize and design, at a graduate level, a surgical care project, either in a research or educational development format, for a low resource setting globally
  • implement and evaluate an approved surgical care project
  • discuss the importance of host colleague partnerships in global surgical care projects
  • articulate and discuss the barriers to successful global surgical care projects
  • articulate and defend the value of a field practicum to consolidate learning of surgical care in low resource settings globally
  • prepare and complete a publication-ready report on a global surgical care project

What our students have to say:

“It has been a great experience to follow through from developing a research project to putting it into action.”

“[The instructor] provided excellent guidance and support during this course. [The instructor] provided helpful feedback and ideas as I progressed through the various stages of project development and implementation. Thank you for an excellent course and experience!”

[The instructor] is very available for help and feedback. Excellent critiquing of papers that recognized I was not an expert and [they] did help me learn from my mistakes.”

“I found this project to be extremely relevant to much of the work that I am already involved in and will continue to participate in.”

“The practicum was directly applicable to goals.”