International Electives

[Guest MiniMedGirl]

Hey..was thinking about an elective SOMEWHERE outside of North America (preferably developing world). Any good places that people would recommend or advice as such?

[Guest Sarah371]

I recently did an elective in the UK in palliative care (as a resident)...not developinmg world but a great experience all the same.

 

I just began e-mailing program directors at different hospitals.

 

Have you looked at Doctors without Boarders or the Red Cross? They may be able to help.

 

SARAH

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I went to South Africa. It was absolutely phenomenal.

 

South Africa suffers from many of the same medical problems the rest of sub-saharan africa suffers from. But it's also got a relatively stable economy and first class med schools - so you'll work with well trained doctors and have (some*) access to modern equipment such as ultrasound, ICUs, and CT scanners. That means you'll actually be able to do something,* unlike if you were in a rural clinic in one of the other African countries, where you might be in a clinic with nothing more than Amoxicillin and Tylenol.

 

*medical care decisions in SA are more resource driven than even Canada, so you still will be find situations that are frustrating from the standpoint of not being able to do something.

[Guest MooseMallet]

I know this thread is a little old...but do you mind if I ask where you did your elective in South Africa? and how far in advance did you need to apply?

 

I'm interested in doing an Emergency Elective out there, so I'm trying to get some leads.

 

Thanks!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I did a rural emergency elective (in other words - really the equivalent of 'rural family' here) at Bethesda Hospital, which is in northern KwaZulu-Natal, near the border of Swaziland and about 2 hrs south of Mozambique - if you can find the Mkuze game reserve on a map, you're right there.

 

I applied about a year before I went, though I probably could have gotten things done with only 6 months. I got the contacts from the Medical Electives Overseas Program office here at UWO - that program might be relatively unique to here.

 

Emergency/trauma in South Africa is fantastic. The docs are very well trained and unfortunately there's tons of cases to learn from. . . much more than here in Canada.

 

I was in a smaller rural emerg - great experience nonetheless. Quite a few trauma cases, a truly unfortunate number of HIV cases (the docs I worked with guessed 75% of the patients we worked with were HIV positive) and lots of the usual stuff you'd expect here.

 

If you want a really good trauma experience, I'd suggest contacting Witswatersrand uni (the big med school in Johannesburg) and looking into a trauma elective at the trauma center at Johannesburg General. They're pretty much the busiest trauma center in the world, and are very used to taking international elective students (I happened to drop by Jo'burg gen one day with one of the docs I was working with.)

[Guest MooseMallet]

Thanks for the help. I'll check those hospitals out.

[Guest Ian Wong]

Floating back to the top...

 

Ian

[Guest Win2002]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if anyone here has done an elective in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

 

I'm trying to set up an elective there for next summer and haven't had much luck so far finding an elective contact within Kuala Lumpur (although I did find one in a neighboring province but unfortunately that won't do)

[Guest wassabi101]

Sorry I know nothing about electives in Malaysia. I can tell you though that when I was doing an elective in Kenya, I met people from all over the globe who were medical students doing rotations at missionary hospitals in developing countries. It was amazing to hear how organized their rotations were and how there was a good mix of teaching and responsibility as well!

 

I would strongly recommend for anyone who's interested in doing an international elective to check up programs run through missionary hospitals, even if you're not really religious.

 

Once you're set up, it's always easy to travel to the various provincial and district hospitals as well, introduce yourself and also get to see the non-private/missionary aspect of care in the country.

 

Good luck!

 

wassabi