volunteer abroad or at home?

[the10isplyr]

So, the summer of 2009 I have an opportunity to apply for a scholarship that will pay for any 'significant summer experience' and I'm planning on putting the money towards a medical trip to Africa. My question is- some people have told me that before we (pre-meds) go and try to save the world through Africa, we should instead look closer to home and help the underserved in our cities as well. Ergo, my question is...what do you think? Is it better to go abroad and help out those who need it the most, or just work in like a free clinic or so for a summer?

Side note: does anyone know any good international volunteering programs that go to Africa?

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[Jolie South]

unless you can get something going with an organization in an english speaking country, i'd say stay here.

there are a lot of cultural/language differences and if you're looking to learn about international medicine or actually help out it will be incredibly difficult and less meaningful if you're constantly going through a translator. clinical experience-wise i would think you would get more out of doing something here. there are a lot of people here that are just as needy as those abroad in developing countries.

now, if you're doing this to solidify language skills you already have (French primarily), learn about another culture, and travel with the medical stuff being secondary, i'd say go for it.

 

[Cegar]

Also, if you know another Romance language (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian) and can take the time to learn some French grammar and vocabulary, you should be fine. It's not extremely hard.

And most French-speaking Africans aren't as critical of non-native speakers than other francophones. Especially when they're diseased.

Volunteering experiences abroad may vary. There are a lot of hoaky programs. There are also some good ones. Do reasearch. Get in touch with the program and people who were in it.

If you can get going for free, it shouldn't be too bad. Probably.

 

[Mobius1985]

If you want to assist and not just observe, the absence of "Privacy Laws" makes it much more likely you can be intimately involved in patient care in a third-world country. You'd need to be sure before you leave exactly what your role is intended to be, by maybe communicating with a previous student participant. In the USA, unless you are a translator or a scribe there is no guarantee you will be allowed to be present during patient care, and may end up doing paper work, cleaning rooms, or showing people how to get to the lab. In the group I traveled with overseas, if you were a med student who had completed the clinical year, you were allowed to see patients independently under physician supervision.

 

[SirGecko]

As long as you are also volunteering at home throughout the year I'd go ahead and take the opportunity to go to Africa. It'll probably be a great experience, just don't expect it to count as "clinical experience" or anything. (the premed advisers at my school say that has to occur in the US and I'm inclined to believe them)

 

[the10isplyr]

As long as you are also volunteering at home throughout the year I'd go ahead and take the opportunity to go to Africa. It'll probably be a great experience, just don't expect it to count as "clinical experience" or anything. (the premed advisers at my school say that has to occur in the US and I'm inclined to believe them)

What if it's American doctors who will be there providing the healthcare?

 

[SirGecko]

I'd still try and do some volunteering/shadowing stateside as well.

 

[flip26]

So, the summer of 2009 I have an opportunity to apply for a scholarship that will pay for any 'significant summer experience' and I'm planning on putting the money towards a medical trip to Africa. My question is- some people have told me that before we (pre-meds) go and try to save the world through Africa, we should instead look closer to home and help the underserved in our cities as well. Ergo, my question is...what do you think? Is it better to go abroad and help out those who need it the most, or just work in like a free clinic or so for a summer?

Side note: does anyone know any good international volunteering programs that go to Africa?

Abroad is fine, especially if it is not one of these one week junkets, but keep the following in mind:

Also important to have a long term experience or two here. By itself, I think any short to medium length overseas volunteer experience will be viewed skeptically.

Plus, if you volunteer in a US hospital or clinic, it will serve as meaningful clinical experience. One of the SDN adcoms recently admonished someone in another thread for assuming that clinical experience in a foreign country will be accepted as clinical experience by US med schools, so beware...same caveat applies to shadowing physicians in foreign countries...

 

[DallasMedic]

Life is all about experiences... if your going to be passing out magazines to people in the waiting room or go to another country to see how medicine is different in other countries which will you remember?

 

[pparikh]

Do a search there is a pretty in depth thread somewhere that discussed this at length...included i think some opinions from adcoms...

 

[Jolie South]

Abroad is fine, especially if it is not one of these one week junkets, but keep the following in mind:

Also important to have a long term experience or two here. By itself, I think any short to medium length overseas volunteer experience will be viewed skeptically.

Plus, if you volunteer in a US hospital or clinic, it will serve as meaningful clinical experience. One of the SDN adcoms recently admonished someone in another thread for assuming that clinical experience in a foreign country will be accepted as clinical experience by US med schools, so beware...same caveat applies to shadowing physicians in foreign countries...

I think abroad experience counts, but I wouldn't have it as your only clinical experience. you need to prove that you know at least a little something about how medicine is practiced in the states.

my app situation prevented me from having a great deal of exposure in the US. the only experience I included on my AMCAS was abroad. however, when this was brought up in interviews i always mentioned the rotation program that i did my entire senior year of high school. i wouldn't recommend that anyone try to do what i did. my situation was unique and my job abroad was directly health related so my exposure was essentially constant for 2 years.

i don't think work abroad will count against you, but i do think that you should try to get exposure here. travelling abroad for the sole purpose of getting clinical hours seems kinda silly to me, unless you're trying to learn something about international health to broaden the experiences that you've already had.

 

[the10isplyr]

oh no, I plan on having some volunteer time at a free clinic in a very poor area and i'm already and EMT so I'm going to be going back to days of rescue squad soon, hopefully. but yeah, thanks for your opinion you guys