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Hi does anyone know of anyone who has volunteered abroad and if so what programs they did? As well as the extent of their visit. I would prefer that these programs be medical in nature.
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Volunteering Abroad
- Thread starter water40polo04
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along the same lines as the OP, are there any programs where YOU dont have to pay to volunteer elsewhere? im thinking something like peaceCorps, but with less time committment.
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Check out International Service Learning (ISL).
Here's a description from one of their flyers: 'The ISL program presents a unique and exciting opportunity for pre-health students to experience medical/clinical work first hand in the challenging context of both ?outback? and urban Central America, Mexico, Caribbean, and Africa. These missions last anywhere from 9 days to 2 weeks (3 weeks for Africa), and the cost is low (offering many sponsorship and aid opportunities -- most participants are able to lower the cost by around 60% by participating in our sponsorship program). ANYONE can do this! It is truly an experience that will change your perspective, your life!'
I have been a student ambassador for this program for over a year now, and did my first trip to Trinidad in Sept for free (if ambassadors recruit 12 participants, they go for free). It was awesome -- you work in a teaching hospital for one week, conduct community health surveys and actually do free clinics in rural villages for the 2nd week (this means hands-on patient work: history-taking, bp's/workups, even get to make an initial assessment and the supervising physician with your team helps you make the final -- you get to do everything!) The trips to Central America are great too because they also incorporate a crash-course in medical spanish. Overall, a great program, lots of opportunities with it, and it is short so you dont have to donate a whole summer/semester to going abroad. But even though its short, it gives you great exposure to international medicine and patient interaction. Here's the website if you are interested: www.ISLonline.org.
Here's a description from one of their flyers: 'The ISL program presents a unique and exciting opportunity for pre-health students to experience medical/clinical work first hand in the challenging context of both ?outback? and urban Central America, Mexico, Caribbean, and Africa. These missions last anywhere from 9 days to 2 weeks (3 weeks for Africa), and the cost is low (offering many sponsorship and aid opportunities -- most participants are able to lower the cost by around 60% by participating in our sponsorship program). ANYONE can do this! It is truly an experience that will change your perspective, your life!'
I have been a student ambassador for this program for over a year now, and did my first trip to Trinidad in Sept for free (if ambassadors recruit 12 participants, they go for free). It was awesome -- you work in a teaching hospital for one week, conduct community health surveys and actually do free clinics in rural villages for the 2nd week (this means hands-on patient work: history-taking, bp's/workups, even get to make an initial assessment and the supervising physician with your team helps you make the final -- you get to do everything!) The trips to Central America are great too because they also incorporate a crash-course in medical spanish. Overall, a great program, lots of opportunities with it, and it is short so you dont have to donate a whole summer/semester to going abroad. But even though its short, it gives you great exposure to international medicine and patient interaction. Here's the website if you are interested: www.ISLonline.org.
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Well participants are mostly prehealths students, mostly undergrads, but I know there have been some med students and other health students in the past. The teams are a max of 20 participants, usually more around 15.
You stay someplace 'decent' -- meaning there's something for you to sleep on, there's a roof over your head and a restroom of one kind or another. ISL makes a point of letting people know ahead of time that "high maintenance individuals need not apply!" -- you cant bring much (1 med sized bag) for the whole trip, no guarantee of electricity where you are staying. For me, I kinda treated it like a mini boot camp!
Cant mind roughing it a bit, can't mind being up at dawn and going to bed late, can't mind putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. But this why its worth it! It gives you a unique experience that really opens your eyes, and it also (to some extent) makes you appreciate what you have all the more (for example, the freedom to take longer-than-5-min showers!)
As for price, it varies by destination and length of stay, so check out the site I linked in my above post.
You stay someplace 'decent' -- meaning there's something for you to sleep on, there's a roof over your head and a restroom of one kind or another. ISL makes a point of letting people know ahead of time that "high maintenance individuals need not apply!" -- you cant bring much (1 med sized bag) for the whole trip, no guarantee of electricity where you are staying. For me, I kinda treated it like a mini boot camp!
Cant mind roughing it a bit, can't mind being up at dawn and going to bed late, can't mind putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. But this why its worth it! It gives you a unique experience that really opens your eyes, and it also (to some extent) makes you appreciate what you have all the more (for example, the freedom to take longer-than-5-min showers!) As for price, it varies by destination and length of stay, so check out the site I linked in my above post.
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If you have any friends or family in a country with poor medical healthcare system, try to live with them for a summer. In countries in South America, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, they have not heard of malpractice laws yet. There people die from really simple infections, b/c there are not enough doctors/nurses to help them. You can just walk up to the doctors and tell them that you are going to be there to help free of charge and they are going to love you for that. And you get tons of exposure, hands on experience. In the US they won't even allow you to touch a patients. But there you can actually clean wounds, do bandages, they even teach you administer injections, just to get more time for the doctors and nurses to take care of the more complicated cases. It is really cool. I did that and I really fell in love with medicine. Compared to my experience overseas, the exposure I got in American hospitals was really boring.
just my 2 cents.
Fritz
just my 2 cents.
Fritz
