Matthew Swisher, MD: University of California San Diego, Anesthesiology Attending

Lusaka, Zambia: May 2024

 I traveled to the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia to assist with hands-on anesthesia residency teaching and clinical care. During the course of my two weeks in Zambia, I focused on performing ultrasound-guided nerve blocks with local Zambian anesthesia residents. We performed 26 nerve blocks in total to provide surgical anesthesia and postoperative analgesia for patients undergoing mainly orthopedic surgery and abdominal surgery. Most of the Zambian patients would not have received any postoperative analgesia after these major surgeries, so the ability to perform and teach nerve blocks benefited the patients we cared for and hopefully will benefit future patients by improving the residents' procedural skills and confidence. In addition to performing nerve blocks, I also assisted with providing neuraxial and general anesthesia and teaching ultrasound-guided intravenous line placement. Outside of the hands-on clinical care, we facilitated and gave four lectures on various anesthesia topics to the local residents. I believe our trip to Zambia impacted local patient care and hopefully had a long-lasting effect on the trainees we taught.