Karen Mori, third year resident at Department of Gynecology and Obstetric of School of Medical Sciences (SMS) of University of Campinas (Unicamp) did an observership in Minimally Invasive Surgery and Urogynecology at the University of Toronto, Canada. On the last year of residency at the Department, all the residents have 4 weeks to spend on wherever hospital they want, to observe a specific area. It is usually the area they intend to do of specialization.

Karen told us: “As my goal is to do minimally invasive surgery specialty, I was looking for a hospital I could observe and meet some experts in this area. During my 4th year of medical school I had the opportunity to study abroad for one year on the United States, and it was a very unique experience for me. During the residency I planned to go abroad for this elective. Thanks to professor Luiz Gustavo O. Brito who introduced me to Dr. Nucelio Lemos, in an Endometriosis Meeting in Sao Paulo, last year.

"I had the opportunity to shadow doctor Nucelio Lemos on the Mount Sinai Hospital and Women’s College Hospital, both hospitals of University of Toronto for 4 weeks. In my first two weeks, I shadowed him on Minimally Invasive Surgery and in the last two weeks on Urogynecology. The surgeries were performed on Women’s College Hospital which is a day hospital. All the patients after recovery hours are able to go home. All of them were previewed advised about the surgery and about the recovery days after the surgery.

"The surgeries were performed also on the Mount Sinai Hospital. There, the patient can recovery as inpatient during how long it is necessary, but mostly patients were able to go home on the same day. As their health system is similar in some aspects with ours, all the surgeries were part of the public health system. Their technology amazed me, everyone who was scrubbed in had their own screen so they could operate comfortably, and also who wasn’t scrubbed as me and the nurses, we had a screen for us too, so we could also watch the surgery.

"Many equipment as the surgical gown and some instruments were disposable, so after the end of the surgery it was very fast to organize the room. As soon as the patient were forwarded to the recovery room, the cleaning staff were waiting to clean the room. The time between surgeries were around 15 minutes or less. I had the opportunity to observe some different surgeries as laparoscopic cerclage, and also laparoscopic surgery laser assisted, but in most of them the technique was the same as the ones I’ve learned here.

"More than surgery technique, what I learned was how their staff is organized, how they treat each other on the daily basis, how is the relationship between doctor and patient during appointments, and specially, I could learn from observing the importance to perform a high quality of medicine with scientific knowledge but also with respect, care and humanization”.

Some months ago the resident Camila Cavalari visited the same institution, and there is another one, Isabela Fahl, preparing for observership at University of Toronto.