This experience challenged me both medically and on a fundamental level of leadership and how to influence change. It certainly grounded me and has made me a better doctor, anesthesiologist and person.”
– HVO volunteer Theresa Northern, DO, MPH
As of last week, HVO has expanded its anesthesia training efforts to include two new project sites in Kampot, Cambodia and Luang Prabang, Laos.
In Kampot, HVO has expanded its partnership with collaborating institution Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital (SKMH) to include an anesthesia training project. Volunteers at this project site will help prepare two nurses in the hospital’s emergency department to become nurse anesthetists by providing them with clinical and didactic instruction. Volunteers will also work in collaboration with the hospital’s sole anesthesiologist, and help train the anesthesia resident at SKMH.
At the Lao Friends Hospital for Children (LFHC) in Luang Prabang, Laos, volunteers will follow a defined curriculum to help prepare nurses enrolled in the hospital’s nurse anesthetist training program to become practicing nurse anesthetists. In addition to providing clinical and didactic training to the nurses enrolled in this program, volunteers may be asked to assist with hands-on training in patient care in the operating theater.
Volunteers to both sites must be board certified nurse anesthetists or anesthesiologists with a current license and a minimum of two years of experience. Retired providers will be considered for assignments at LFHC. This site also requires that volunteers have prior pediatrics experience and prefers that they have international work and academic experience. Both sites require a commitment of at least two weeks.
HVO collaborates with the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists and the Society for Education in Anesthesia on all its anesthesia projects. Learn more about current anesthesia volunteer opportunities on our anesthesia programs page. Begin your volunteer journey or donate to support these and other projects today!