Volunteer Abroad: Junior Medical Student Electives, Volunteer and Study Abroad

Elective Africa

http://www.electiveafrica.com

30 Lockwood Dr. Princeton, New Jersey 08540 United States

Call Us

Phone: 1 609 643 0188

Fax: 1 609 228 5821

Description

For the purposes of our program, we describe junior medical students as medical students in their pre-clinical years, generally 1st and 2nd year medical students in four year programs in countries like the United States and Canada; and 1st, 2nd and 3rd year medical students in 5 or 6 year medical programs in countries like the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and various medical university programs in other parts of Europe, Australia and the Middle East. This program is tailored to offer an immeasurable level of practical hands-on experience, under supervision, to budding doctors.

The program is focused on the integration of knowledge acquired by the students in various sections of their learning process such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, community health, pharmacology, general and systemic pathology, hematology, immunology and clinical Chemistry. This theoretical knowledge is directed by the supervising doctors and consultants in the hospital to enable the student to draw an understanding of diverse aspects relating to the care of the patient e.g. relevant history taking in various body systems, physical examination, relevant laboratory investigations and their interpretation, arriving at pertinent diagnoses and appropriate treatment measures. The student may be allowed to observe and assist in various general and orthopedic surgeries, under supervision, enabling him/her to get a modest orientation to the clinical specialty, as well as put to practical application his/her knowledge in anatomy. A humble introduction to the clinical specialties of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology is also attained.

While this program can be pursued at any of our partner hospitals, our partnership with St. Joseph Mission Hospital in Migori, Kenya has been geared to distinctively harness knowledge attained by the students in pre-medical and junior medical years. But we make every effort to place our participants in their preferred hospital.

Due to its rural setting, St. Joseph Mission Hospital is also ideal for the placement of volunteers who would like to offer their services at a hospital. The volunteer would be involved in a vast array of activities within the hospital and tending to patients with various illnesses. The volunteer may also engage in a guided interaction with the community at large in the environment around the hospital.

During the program, students will have an opportunity to rotate in medical specialities of their choice for a cumulative duration of 4 weeks. In the event a student wishes to rotate for a duration exceeding this period a request may be made to the program co-ordinators. Students are expected to interact with, clerk, and examine patients and formulate management of various conditions under supervision of the hospital's Medical officers (an equivalent of Senior House officer) and consultants in various clinical specialties. Various procedures may be performed under supervision and depend on the clinical rotation the student is engaged in at the time.

A variety of disease entities and medical conditions will be encountered in various systems and fields of medicine. A proactive liaison with the hospital staff and senior consultants is recommended

Because we view our programs as not just an internship, we encourage students to avail themselves to activities that will facilitate cultural exchange and appreciation for their host country. For students who participate in our Kenya programs, for a supplement payment, we include a 3 day 2 nights Safari to the world famous Masai Mara game reserve.

Highlights

On arrival, you will be met at the airport by one of our representatives and depending on time and airport of arrival, you will either proceed directly to one of our accommodation houses or you will need to stay overnight in a hotel and proceed to your new temporary home the following day.

We use the first day for basic orientation on your surroundings, where to do basic shopping, cultural orientation and meeting other program participants. Part of orientation is to meet your mentors. We assign you two mentors: a host mentor to help you with navigating your new environment and medical professional mentor to ensure you get a very productive and enriching medical experience. One of Elective Africa's key differentiators is that we have developed deep relationships not just with the healthcare institutions we place you in, but we also have deep and committed relationships with professionals that we will assign you to. This is a huge differentiator between our programs and other programs that send you to foreign lands, to unknown programs, under the care of unknown professionals. Our professional mentors are people who we know and we have evaluated and are comfortable with the quality of their mentorship based of feedback from past participants.

Please note that depending on the hospital you are assigned, your medical professional mentor will probably be a physician, but can also be another medical professional such as a nurse. In areas of dire medical services needs such as Africa, nurses and midwives often perform work undertaken in other places only by physicians such as consultations, prescriptions, operations, administering anesthesia and admitting patients. So, whether your mentor is a physician of a nurse, you will get great exposure shadowing them on the job. They will be excellent teachers and will make every effort to give you hands-on experience, under close supervision, whenever possible.

Once you have been introduced to your host mentor and medical professional mentor, the next step is introduction to the hospital, which will be responsible for adequately orienting students to their departments and identifying the patient care process within specific specialties. Particularly, this would involve reviewing the medical procedures, inpatient assessment and department procedures for providing patient care. In addition to your formerly assigned mentors, the hospital staff will serve as mentors for the students, outlining mechanisms for patient interaction, clinical evaluation and management protocols. The hospital may allow senior medical students the opportunity to assess and interact with patients and formulate their own clinical impressions based on these evaluations. It will also outline the resources that are available in evaluating patients and discuss how to appropriately access these resources in patient evaluation. Various laboratory and other diagnostic testing methods would also be discussed. The hospital staff continually assesses progress in the clinical acumen of the student and provides feedback to the students regarding clinical performance through their rotation.

Degree Level

Bachelors Degree (Undergraduate)

Qualifications

Interns must be pre-med or medical students. Volunteers must be medical professionals.

Intern Types

Admin (Health Services)
Health Sciences
Medicine
Nursing

Languages

English

Cost in US$:

1,950 for 4 weeks in Kenya: 2,400 in Tanzania, Arusha

Cost Include Description:

- Organizing your trip and pre-departure support
- Organizing airport pick-up
- Orientation
- Accommodation
- Food
- Support network
- Visa advisory

Credit Available

no

Volunteer Types

Community Health
Health
Health Care

Health Education
Hospital
Medicine

Nursing

Age Range

18 and above

This Program is open to

Worldwide Participant.

Typical Living Arrangements

Apartment/Flat
Group living
Home-stays

Participants Travel to Kenya

Independently or in Groups

Application Process Involves

Letters of Reference
Transcript
Resume
Other
Online Application plus Application Assessment

Post Services Include

Alumni Network
Re-Entry Debriefing at Home

Elective Africa's Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide and offer opportunities for both students and international volunteers to interact in development and educational programs thus enabling them to gain experience and build their capacities for their lives and that of future generations.

Year Founded

2000

Boomers Abroad

Program Photos

Junior Medical Student Electives, Volunteer and Study Abroad