Table 2.

Responses of surgical trainees who volunteered abroad during residency: barriers to organizing the elective, n = 18

Barrier	Rating; %
	Very important	Important	Not important
Lack of elective time	0.0	35.3	64.7
Lack of support from my program	5.6	11.1	83.3
Lack of financial support	23.5	41.2	35.3
Lack of available organized opportunities	17.6	29.4	52.9
Fear of wasting elective time that could be used for an elective/potential fellowship program	11.8	35.3	52.9
My spouse/partner is not as committed to this kind of work as I am (if applicable)	0.0	30.0	70.0
Personal safety (e.g., motor vehicle collisions, terrorism)	0.0	35.3	64.7
Medical safety (e.g., infectious diseases such as HIV)	0.0	41.2	58.8
Fear of litigation	0.0	5.1	94.1