November 8, 2017
Polina Advolodkina's MD, participated in Emory's Global Health Residency Scholars Program. This international elective offers senior residents a four-week rotation in Ethiopia, where they participate in clinical and educational activities.
Dr. Advolodkina's reflections on her experience:
During my time at AAU (Addis Ababa University) I participated in clinical as well as educational duties. This meant that I attended daily sign-out reports and helped to lead educational bedside rounds with 30+ GYN and antepartum patients admitted on any given day. I also assisted in the OR and was able to scrub on several radical hysterectomies, debulking procedures, vulvectomies, and vaginal hysterectomies. In this patient population, I was able to see the immense burden of cervical cancer in the developing world first-hand. Operating in this setting challenged me but made me stronger as a surgeon.
Most notably, during my time at AAU, I helped to start a formal simulation curriculum in OBGYN residency training. I brought low-cost simulation models with me to teach EBL approximation, surgical management of severe PPH, and surgical pelvic anatomy. I led simulation skills sessions every other day with current residents and have been able to see real changes in the resident's approaches to postpartum hemorrhage. Several faculty at Tikur Ambessa have learned to use my models and are incorporating my simulations into the resident's formal training going forward! Beyond that, several members of the faculty are also starting a study on the effects of my EBL approximation training on patient outcomes, PPH clinical management, and resident's accuracy of EBL approximation. The experience of working in a resource-poor setting has challenged and inspired me tremendously. This experience was extremely rewarding and gratifying and I cannot wait to go back.
More than anything I feel that I have learned so much from my experience and have gained a new perspective on medicine and medical-need abroad. This experience has left me with a new-found sense of pride in my work and the work of all of us here at Emory. More than ever I am acutely aware of the amazing job that we do for our patients here in the US and am grateful for my training, my mentorship, and my patients.
