Short-term overseas volunteering: is it worth it?

Abstract

As a medical student in 1975, I travelled the overland ‘hippy trail’ to Nepal to take up an elective post at a leprosy hospital for 2 months. Forty-five years later I returned as a volunteer to work for a month in the isolated mountain villages of north west Nepal. As Programme Director for Global Health Fellowships at the London School of General Practice, Health Education England, I help place experienced GP trainees in posts in developing countries. A year is felt to be the minimum period for the trainee to deliver real benefit and gain worthwhile expertise. Yet here I was heading out on what some might dismiss as a ‘volunteer vacation’. How could I justify such a short-term commitment? Growing concerns about the value and effectiveness of short-term volunteer trips intended to improve health in lower income overseas countries has driven the development …