Help and FAQs

If you are a resident in your final year of study of plastic and reconstructive surgery, anaesthesia, or paediatrics you may be eligible to apply for our Resident Leadership Programme. This programme allows residents to experience a mission under the supervision of a mentor.

Unfortunately we do not have the means to facilitate elective placements. At the moment, we are only able to offer fellowships through our Resident Leadership Programme for trainees who are in their final year of study in plastic surgery, anaesthesia, or paediatrics.

There is a €300 team fee required of all medical volunteers for each programme attended. This team fee covers the volunteer’s airfare, lodging, ground transportation (to/from the airport and to/from the hospital), and breakfast and lunch every day of the programme.

Programmes are usually 10 days long but may at times require additional travel time to get to/from the programme site. Volunteers are financially responsible for any costs incurred for visas, immunisations, checked baggage, dinners during the programme, and any other incidentals like phone/internet charges at the hotel, taxis, souvenirs, etc.

A member of the volunteering team will be in touch with you to coordinate your availability with our programme needs.

Please bear in mind that to be in compliance with Operation Smile’s Global Standards of Care, programme teams must have a balance of new and experienced Operation Smile volunteers.

This means that there may be fewer positions available in each specialty for new volunteers throughout the year, but we will do our best to get you on your first programme as soon as possible.

Once you have been confirmed to a programme, we will send you all information providing all necessary details regarding the programme. There are also forms that must be read, signed and returned. Volunteers will be advised of the expectations well in advance.

Processing a new volunteer application can take between 12-24 weeks on average.

You can start by completing the form to register your interest. A member of the team will get in touch to discuss if there are any volunteering opportunities that match your speciality.

If we are recruiting for your medical specialty, you will need to complete a volunteer application form and included any supporting documentation, each application is reviewed to ensure that we continue to provide the best clinical care possible to every patient.

The application will then be sent to our headquarters office in the US to be approved and credentialed. If you have any questions please feel free to contact our volunteers department at 1800 849 061 or by email at info@operationsmile.ie

All of the medical specialties accepted are based upon clinical experience and education.

Paediatric experience is required and our nurses must have experience working in a medical/surgical Unit, PICU, NICU, PACU, operating theatre, or A&E during the past two years.

Operation Smile adheres to Global Standards of Care and ensuring the safety of our volunteers and patients is of the utmost importance. Therefore we require our medical volunteers be active in their profession. We will accept retirees for up to two-years post retirement as long as the credentials are current and some form of education and applicable work (if only part-time) is continued.

While ODPs play an important role in patient care in Ireland, unfortunately licensing requirements from other countries preclude us from having ODPs in our programmes at this time.

In recent years our demand for international dental volunteers has decreased significantly due to successful training initiatives for local dental volunteers across our programme countries.

While it is a testament to our sustainable development strategy, unfortunately it does mean that we are currently unable to accept dental applications.

We utilise medical volunteers in the following roles: anaesthetists/paediatric anaesthetists, operating theatre, recovery room and pre/post-operative nurses, paediatricians, surgeons (plastic, oral maxillofacial, and cleft), paediatric cardiologists, paediatric intensivists and neonatologists. We also accept certified child life specialists/hospital play specialists, speech and language therapists, and biomed technicians. Areas such as administration, clinics, OB, psychology and schools generally do not meet this criteria.