Medical Spanish/Medical Mission Abroad This Summer...Anyone Interested?

[AmandaL444]

I just finished my 1st year of medical school and am really interested in doing some type of medical mission/ medical spanish program abroad this summer (either Costa Rica, Spain, Argentina, wherever really). I've taken 5 years of spanish in school and would love to help solidify and expand on my exisiting foundation (not to mention how helpful it would be to have some medical spanish training). I've been researching some summer courses that are around 2-4 weeks long. A lot of the courses offer medical spanish training and hospital observation and experience to practice what you've learned. It'd be nice to go with a group of medical students (not to mention going alone isn't really safe). If anyone is interested in doing something like this for around 2 weeks this summer (starting somewhere around June 15th or 22nd) PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Also, if anyone has done a trip like this in the past and has information on the best places to go/ best experiences, I could really use the advice! Thanks so much! 😀

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[DrJosephKim]

I've gone to Mexico, Ecuador, and Honduras. There are some really great opportunities with several different organizations (some are faith-based, so I don't know if that would be of interest). These types of overseas experiences will open your eyes and teach you so much about the art of medicine (since the application of the science will be relatively limited).

 

[Perrotfish]

I really think that you're either going to do a medical mission trip OR a medical spanish course. You're not going to have a enough time to pick up much of the language and help a lot of people during such a short summer trip, even if you do the mission in a Spanish speaking country.

If you're interested in plain old immersive spanish courses I used these people for 16 weeks before I started medical school:

www.ecela.com

They were very good and there were a lots of other students at the school at all times (mostly college kids, but there were a several medical students and even a few docs that passed through), so you wouldn't need to worry about being alone. For medical Spanish I just bought a couple of hours of private lessons in the afternoons after the morning group lessons and had them teach me Spanish medical vocabulary. They also have an option where you can pay to shadow in a hospital, whch I tried out of a sense of obligation but in retrospect was a waste of valuble money and vacation time.

 

[AmandaL444]

Thanks you guys. I'm a Christian, so some of the faith-based organizations might be of interest to me. Also, as far as the ecela goes, did you go to Argentina, Chile, or Peru? Did you feel safe?

 

[hasha]

I went to Costa Rica with VIDA (http://vidavolunteertravel.org/index.php). It was an excellent trip and I was able to really practice my Spanish.

 

[monthrawe]

To the OP/Amanda, I hope you had a gr8 experience, whatever it is that you ended up doing.

I had an interest like you to do something similar but much much longer and I'm going to put it in action near the end of August. Given Perrotfish's recommendation, I am planning to embark on an immersion program with ECELA in Lima, Peru for about 11 weeks, which will start on Aug. 31st 2009, and go on to Nov. 13.

Afterwards I will travel to Cuzco to volunteer in a medical clinic with Hampy (www.hampy.org) for the next 4 weeks. I've decided to create a blog out of the whole immersion experience so if any of you out there are interested in how things turn out and my plans, etc., follow me over at http://peronu.wordpress.com/

For anyone who reads this, you can ask me questions or comments or whatever comes up in the future, and I'd be happy to tell all as I get further immersed in my Peru experience, if my blog isn't enough. You can PM me but I can't promise I'll check so the aforementioned blog is a better bet.

 

[s921v]

Hope you found something great to do. For the future,
My friend and I spent a month in San Vito, Costa Rica living with a physician and rotating through the clinics and hospital there. It was an excellent experience and tons of fun. We just set it up ourselves and showed up at the doctors house. It turned out to be completely safe and great. Dr. Pablo Ortiz - the entire town knew him! If you decide to do any other trips I'd be happy to give you the contact details.

 

[hasp]

I just finished my 1st year of medical school and am really interested in doing some type of medical mission/ medical spanish program abroad this summer (either Costa Rica, Spain, Argentina, wherever really). I've taken 5 years of spanish in school and would love to help solidify and expand on my exisiting foundation (not to mention how helpful it would be to have some medical spanish training). I've been researching some summer courses that are around 2-4 weeks long. A lot of the courses offer medical spanish training and hospital observation and experience to practice what you've learned. It'd be nice to go with a group of medical students (not to mention going alone isn't really safe). If anyone is interested in doing something like this for around 2 weeks this summer (starting somewhere around June 15th or 22nd) PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Also, if anyone has done a trip like this in the past and has information on the best places to go/ best experiences, I could really use the advice! Thanks so much! 😀

You could check out: [FONT=Papyrus, cursive]http://hasp.doodlekit.com/.

 

[tkeeshin]

Hope you found something great to do. For the future,
My friend and I spent a month in San Vito, Costa Rica living with a physician and rotating through the clinics and hospital there. It was an excellent experience and tons of fun. We just set it up ourselves and showed up at the doctors house. It turned out to be completely safe and great. Dr. Pablo Ortiz - the entire town knew him! If you decide to do any other trips I'd be happy to give you the contact details.

Hi can you please give me the details and contact information? I would love to do that!!

 

[tkeeshin]

Hi sorry this is my first time using it. I quoted you before but I think I was supposed to hit reply for you to see this so hopefully you see now! Could you please give me the contact info for Dr Pablo Ortiz and more details about when you stayed with him and did rotations? I would love to do that!!

 

[tkeeshin]

I just finished my 1st year of medical school and am really interested in doing some type of medical mission/ medical spanish program abroad this summer (either Costa Rica, Spain, Argentina, wherever really). I've taken 5 years of spanish in school and would love to help solidify and expand on my exisiting foundation (not to mention how helpful it would be to have some medical spanish training). I've been researching some summer courses that are around 2-4 weeks long. A lot of the courses offer medical spanish training and hospital observation and experience to practice what you've learned. It'd be nice to go with a group of medical students (not to mention going alone isn't really safe). If anyone is interested in doing something like this for around 2 weeks this summer (starting somewhere around June 15th or 22nd) PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Also, if anyone has done a trip like this in the past and has information on the best places to go/ best experiences, I could really use the advice! Thanks so much! 😀

Hi did you ever end up doing a program? I am pre-med and also studying spanish and looking for the same sort of thing. Let me know if you have any suggestions please!