There are a number of different reasons you may wish to work in the developing world whether you are a trainee or established consultant in the UK.
Overseas visits offer opportunities to deal with urology in a number of different environments, different from those that exist in the NHS. These include:
- accelerating experience of pathology and surgical techniques that would be encountered in the UK.
- gaining novel experience of conditions and management options not available in the UK.
- concentrating experience in specific areas of sub-specialist expertise which are not readily available in the UK.
Working in the developing world, in particular, will help to give you some insight into practising medicine where limited diagnostic support is available.
The benefits of working abroad are more than professional. Experiences outside the UK help to foster durable relationships with the centres visited and these relationships may last for the remainder of your professional career. Working abroad has the potential to renew your enthusiasm for medicine and may be an experience that is not a module in any part of your UK-based training. It goes without saying that a period abroad enables you to travel and maximise opportunities, offered in the locality, in your leisure time.
Finally, those of you considering working in the developing world may wish to do so for more altruistic reasons. You may wish to contribute to the provision of urological services in the centre or country that you visit. You need to be sure that you are contributing and not going to decrease the opportunities for urologists in the centre you visit. For these reasons it is advisable that trainees wishing to work in the developing world are going somewhere that has already been visited by a UK-based consultant and which is appropriately staffed and equipped to provide, realistically, the experience the visitor wants. Any trainee contemplating such an experience would be best advised to contact the Urolink office at BAUS.
