Before even entering medical school, Nishan Tchekmedyian assisted in orthopedic surgery in Ghana.
Lola Destro vividly recalls performing circumcisions in Kenya and the Philippines before she set foot in the David Geffen School of Medicine as a student.
From setting up clinics to working on AIDS and HIV education, UCLA students and medical professionals are looking beyond the UC Education Abroad Program to international volunteer work that allows them to bring medical training to people in developing countries.
No matter where they went or what the nature of their work was, many students who have participated in these programs agree that going abroad is a life-changing experience that has shaped their perceptions of medical work and their future careers.
While medical education in the United States can include some hands-on training, students say it’s nothing like what they experienced abroad.
Tchekmedyian, who assisted an orthopedic surgeon in Ghana for three weeks, said you can get more hands-on training abroad.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did in Ghana here,” Tchekmedyian said.
Ben Ferguson, who is now co-president of Rural India Social and Health Improvement (Project RISHI) after joining the group last summer on a trip to India, said he believes sometimes the many restrictions in American health care can limit the opportunities medical students have.
The nonprofit organization, which was founded by UCLA undergraduate students in 2005, is working on setting up a permanent clinic in a rural Indian village as well as fundraising for other humanitarian projects.
Invariably, students described working in foreign health care systems as eye-opening and difficult.
Their tales of the odds that doctors and patients face abroad are endless.
Tchekmedyian said that in Ghana patients wait in long lines and must pay for their treatment before even being seen by a doctor.
When Destro’s friend gave birth in Kenya, she was crammed into a single hospital bed with two or three other new mothers and their infants.
Medicine can be scarce, said these students, and even when it is available, people in rural areas often have to travel for hours to get to a hospital that can accommodate emergency cases.
Amit Jain, vice president of Project RISHI, said he was very troubled after visiting clinics and hospitals in rural India.
A local doctor told the Project RISHI group that the Indian government spends less than $20 per person on health care a year, said Ferguson and Jain.
In comparison, the United States spends thousands of dollars per person a year.
“It was an eye-opening experience, but not in a good way,” Jain said.
Students said there were times when the harsh reality of the conditions in these countries were hard to shoulder.
Tchekmedyian said he experienced a feeling of helplessness during his time in Ghana, and both he and Ferguson said these trips convinced them that only long-term social changes, not charity, is what will bring about better health care around the world.
One important part of these larger scale changes is health education, said Paula Tavrow, a public health professor.
Tavrow, director of the Bixby Institute ““ a program that offers funds to students to conduct public health projects abroad ““ said the students who have participated in the program in the past have conducted projects such as health education campaigns, which can be an important step in combatting common disease.
“When you put money into prevention, it’s almost always more cost-effective,” she said.
Destro said she found the people she worked with very receptive and eager to be proactive in improving the health of their communities.
“When you give them information, they really take it all and they really want to respond to it. They’re waiting for someone to tell them how to make changes, and they’re definitely willing to ““ they just don’t know how,” she said.
While students who volunteer abroad certainly have much to teach the communities they work with, they said they also brought back many valuable lessons.
Since there is often a shortage of medical resources in developing countries, Tchekmedyian said, doctors must learn to improvise and be resourceful and intuitive, a sought-after skill for medical professionals.
Ferguson and Jain said they were able to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the American and Indian health care systems.
For aspiring doctors such as Destro, Jain and Ferguson, the trips may also help clarify the reasons they are interested in the medical profession to begin with.
“I didn’t think it was fair to have my yearly physical exam be the entire basis of my wanting to enter the medical profession,” said Ferguson.
No matter where they end up or the type of project they do, many students who do this type of work agree that the added perspective they gain is invaluable.