Student Spotlight - Elective Stories

Abstract

Organising your junior or senior elective is no mean feat. There are plenty of factors
that come in to play; choosing a medical specialty, deciding whether to stay at home or
go abroad, finances, learning objectives and safety regulations. We have compiled a
collection of short elective summaries completed by Glasgow university students in
summer 2023. We hope this provides you with some inspiration for organising your
elective in summer 2024. Dr. Craig Napier and Nicola Cumming are extremely helpful
when it comes to answering elective related questions. You can email them at:
med-sch-outgoing-electives@glasgow.ac.uk
The Amazon, Peru,
Laura Scobie
I step outside to witness the golden sunrise
reflecting on the muddy amazon water. It is
another morning in the rainforest and there
is another community to provide a
healthcare service to. We run through the
village taking care with our steps as there is
always the risk of snakes being on the path; it
is starting to get warm and in the humidity
you quickly get sweaty. We stop and buy
coconuts from a local family; the refreshing
water cools us down. Village life is basic and
varies from village to village with some
having water running to their self-built
wooden homes and others having to collect
water from the river. Again, some homes
have access to electricity from a central
generator or solar panels but many people
do not. Most families live off the land and all
the money that they have is in their back
pocket.
Morning clinic begins and a mum arrives
with her four children. Common complaints
are headaches, fatigue or joint pain. When
exploring the life style of patients it is easy
to see why many people suffer from these
complaints; working in the heat of the day
doing manual labour and drinking little
water. Iron deficiency is also common as iron
rich food is not often in their diet. We screened all children for anaemia by
looking for conjunctival pallor and tested
their haemoglobin if we felt it was necessary.
We had to presume anaemia was due to iron
deficiency as there were no other tests
available to us. All patients received a
multivitamin and for those children under
five who could not swallow a tablet, we would
prescribe syrup as per their weight
according to the BNF and boat guidelines.
Although practicing medicine was
challenging at times due to limited testing
and ability to follow up, one big success is the
dental service. There is an excellent dental
suite on board with room for two patients to
receive treatment. Without this the patient
population would have no access to dental
care; being a population with poor general
dental hygiene, this is vital to overall patient
health. It was a privilege to work alongside
Peruvian employees and volunteers and to
be embraced by their families and to explore
their culture.
Bristol,
Heather Hamilton
I did my senior Elective in Bristol in Critical
Care and Anaesthetics. I decided to stay in
the UK for a number of reasons and still
managed to get away before and after my
elective for a break before starting back for
5th year!
The hospital I was at was the major trauma
and neurosurgery centre for South-West
England which meant I got to be involved
with the care of many complex patients. The
teaching was excellent and very hands on,
especially in theatre where I was encouraged
to get IV access, draw up drugs, intubate, and
get involved in more complex procedures. I got to see some operations that, within the
UK, are only performed at the hospital I was
based at. In the ICU I examined patients
during rounds, practiced US-guided
cannulas, and got involved with the
emergency crash team for the whole site.
The timetable was extremely flexible, and I
got to choose which theatre sessions I was
interested in, what days I wanted off, and
when I wanted to be in ICU.
The anaesthetics department also had three
coffee machines and (a very nice – I’m
talking Sourdough and smoked salmon)
lunch was bought by the consultants once a
week so that was a bonus!
Staying in the UK certainly had its benefits
for me. I was able to spend time with family
and friends that I hadn’t seen properly for a
few years, and the experience helped me to
solidify my Foundation Year rankings. I spent
my weekends in London, with family in the
local area, and Cornwall which was only a
couple of hours away from Bristol.
Uganda,
Anna Kyle
For my senior elective, I travelled to Kiwoko
Hospital, in a rural town in Uganda for a five
week programme of paediatrics and general
medicine. This was a community-based
hospital with an emphasis on spiritual as well
as physical health. Placement would begin
with 8am chapel, featuring specials run by
various departments who took joy in dancing
or dressing the medical director up as Jesus.
After this, we would attend the doctor’s
meeting to handover patients over local
chapatis and samosas and we received
teaching on professionalism. Following this, we headed to the wards,
divided into male and female rather than
specialities. Patients were only paediatric if
under five years of age, and on the ‘ward
round’, children were brought to the doctor’s
desk. Besides regular placement, one
weekend there was a ‘medical mission’, in a
neighbouring village to run a mass screening
programme. This was run under the trees,
until nightfall when we had to use phone
torches to see the paperwork. At this, I ran a
paediatric clinic with a translator, and was
able to amuse the children by creating
balloons out of gloves!
The elective provided a fascinating glimpse
at healthcare in a resource-poor country.
Healthcare was only partially subsidised with
patients charged for even the gloves used by
staff, so often patients would only be able to
afford a consultation without investigations
or treatment. On days, the hospital ran out
of essentials such as oxygen, imposing
ethical dilemmas. Cultural beliefs
encountered could be difficult. For instance,
epilepsy is stigmatized as a mental health
condition, or attributed to demon
possession, and was at times ‘treated’ with
boiling water to terminate a seizure. Women
were often treated as property whose
husbands could dictate when and to what
extent they received medical treatment. It
was an eye-opening elective, but thoroughly
enjoyable.