Oops, posted this elsewhere before seeing this thread.
I did two months of Andean Health in Quito last summer after my first year. Had an AMAZING experience. My best friends did Bolivia, both in different years. So here's my run down.
Bolivia
Much less actual clinic time than Ecuador and more b.s. like counseling of troubled youth, less modern equipment, and less quality language classes and more students per teacher.
Ecuador, Andean.
4 hours a day in clinic, 4 hours of language classes (one on one, in June. Three on one in July) The program offers social events and two group meetings each week. Do not go to either, they are a complete waste of time.
Each week you are in a different hospital and different specialty. You can submit requests for either surgery, family, emergency, or OBGYN. Trading is possible if you don't like what you get. All preceptors are very happy to help, but please please please know Spanish. They do not have time to translate between patients, so if you don't speak it you will be bored and lost and leave like so many other of my program people did. Every person in our program who was unhappy was unhappy for this reason.
If you can speak it, however, you will get a lot out of the program doing TONS of physicals and observing a high volume of diseases and ill patients that you cannot see in the states. My preceptors were very happy to explain everything and I learned an absolute monster amount.
My Favorites were:
Emergency
Only truly sick patients show up, absolutely no primary care time wasters. I got to do a lot of needle sticks and wound cleanings, but I was the exception do not expect or demand this. Cannot possibly describe the crazy **** I saw, the sheer list of acute and rare diseases just goes on and on. The very best rotation.
Ob Gyn.
Wow. At least several births a day. Can be hard to get in to see the C-sections but I saw natural births that included forceps deliveries, twins, breach, and a foot presentation.
Family
Expect extreme malnutrition in the children and diseases that have been weeks in the making. The best part of the rotation was looking in lungs and throats and listening to lungs and hearts. Felt much more confident at the end of the week.
Surgery
I only lasted two days before trading back to ER I was so bored, but that is true with US as well. Saw a gallbladder, fasciotomy, Achilles tendon repair and a neurosurgery.
The people who did Rural Medicine had an amazing time, too. Again the only negative responses I heard while in country were from non fluent speakers.
