Hello,
I am a medical student in the UK looking to do an elective in Cape Town (South Africa). I am particularly looking for quite broad placement where I can get to grips with really practising my ability to do histories, examinations and formulate management plans as well as get to do lots of procedures. I will be in my final year of medical school when I go to elective.
Because of this, I was thinking of placements in: emergency (medical) or emergency (trauma) or general internal medicine. I was wondering if the following questions could be answered by anybody who has worked there:
1) If I apply for a trauma elective (that is primarily non-surgical) e.g., at Groote Shuur - will I only be clerking trauma victims in the ED or also get exposure to the medical patients too?
2) Is there a general medical ward at the Cape Town hospitals, and will I get to see a lot of acute things there and get to put in things like chest drains / do lumbar punctures? Or will all of that be done in medical emergency room / the respective specialty (for example, only respiratory doctors will put in chest drains)?
3) When hospitals say they have a medicine department - is that a general medical ward? or would I be placed in a sub-specialty like respiratory/cardiology etc.?
If anybody could advise me on the above or where would be a good place for me to do a placement, I'd much appreciate it. At the moment I'm looking at Groote Shuur, Somerset, Tygerberg and Victoria Hospitals. I only speak English, but I'm told there'll be enough for me to do there even if I happen to come across a lot of patients who speak Afrikaans.
I am a medical student in the UK looking to do an elective in Cape Town (South Africa). I am particularly looking for quite broad placement where I can get to grips with really practising my ability to do histories, examinations and formulate management plans as well as get to do lots of procedures. I will be in my final year of medical school when I go to elective.
Because of this, I was thinking of placements in: emergency (medical) or emergency (trauma) or general internal medicine. I was wondering if the following questions could be answered by anybody who has worked there:
1) If I apply for a trauma elective (that is primarily non-surgical) e.g., at Groote Shuur - will I only be clerking trauma victims in the ED or also get exposure to the medical patients too?
2) Is there a general medical ward at the Cape Town hospitals, and will I get to see a lot of acute things there and get to put in things like chest drains / do lumbar punctures? Or will all of that be done in medical emergency room / the respective specialty (for example, only respiratory doctors will put in chest drains)?
3) When hospitals say they have a medicine department - is that a general medical ward? or would I be placed in a sub-specialty like respiratory/cardiology etc.?
If anybody could advise me on the above or where would be a good place for me to do a placement, I'd much appreciate it. At the moment I'm looking at Groote Shuur, Somerset, Tygerberg and Victoria Hospitals. I only speak English, but I'm told there'll be enough for me to do there even if I happen to come across a lot of patients who speak Afrikaans.
