Medical Volunteer Trip Abroad??

[SN20SCH]

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[SpoiledMilk]

To paraphrase @LizzyM on a previous thread regarding a similar subject matter, go and gain valuable experience from other cultures, but don't list it as an activity on the AMCAS.

If by happenstance it is asked about at an interview, elucidate what you learned from the experience.

 

[LizzyM]

Do it and leave it off of your application. Then it can't hurt but you get the benefit of growing from the experience.

 

[LizzyM]

My work here is done. After 20,000 posts, I'm quoted while I'm still writing. 🙄

 

[SpoiledMilk]

My work here is done. After 20,000 posts, I'm quoted while I'm still writing. 🙄

LOL....

 

[LAIsTheBestPlaceEver]

Do it and leave it off of your application. Then it can't hurt but you get the benefit of growing from the experience.

I am confused and a little scared. I have done a lot of global humanitarian trips in both Mexico and mountain areas in China. I did them because I truly enjoyed them. I definitely disagree with OP in terms of "so because we are undergrads and can't do anything to help other than watch really". I think, at least from my experience, we the volunteers were greatly appreciated by the locals. Through those experiences I had my sight opened, learned the impact of culture and superstition on one's health and desire to get medical help. I do not see a reason that adcom looks down on those experiences. I think it only shows compassion. Please enlighten me on that. On top of that, I think if this is what you truly enjoy(like me), then I do not see a reason to not include it. In fact, I even stating a story from my humanitarian trip on my personal statement.

 

[ObjectiveBoba]

My work here is done. After 20,000 posts, I'm quoted while I'm still writing. 🙄

Hey Lizzy (or anyone), quick question about volunteering overseas. I grew up overseas for 17 years, and routinely go back for winters/summers, and occasionally volunteer and do community service there. Would this still have the stigma as "medical tourism/medical trips/humanitarian trips abroad"? Thanks!

 

[LAIsTheBestPlaceEver]

Hey Lizzy, quick question about volunteering overseas. I grew up overseas for 17 years, and routinely go back for Winters/Summers, and occasionally volunteer and do community service there. Would this still have the stigma as "medical tourism/medical trips"? Thanks!

Medical tourism? That's a thing? 😱. A quick search gives me this:

Medical tourism refers to people traveling to a country other than their own to obtain medical treatment. In the past this usually referred to those who traveled from less-developed countries to major medicalcenters in highly developed countries for treatment unavailable at home.

 

[imxpandanese]

on a more extreme note, one of the premed organizations at my school traveled to the Philippines and the students got to perform circumcisions alongside the nurses on newborns.

granted, the locals were okay with this because this was college-educated students from the US performing these procedures. however, no parent in the US in their right mind would let some unlicensed 18 year old go near their baby without a shower of lawsuits

 

[LAIsTheBestPlaceEver]

• Member schools expressed significant concern with regards to premedical students engaging in unsupervised clinical activities in international settings [emphasis added]. In particular, 45-50% of those schools completing the survey described applicant involvement in invasive procedures in international settings as either harmful to, or of no value to, their application. Examples of such invasive procedures include giving vaccinations, suturing an injury, pulling teeth, and delivering a baby. This concern of admissions officers persisted, albeit at lower levels (35-40% of respondents), when the students were supervised by a health professional while performing such invasive procedures in international settings.

Interesting. I understand that Medical schools are worried about student's qualification to do anything medical practice related activities in general. However, I find the statement "engaging in unsupervised clinical activities in international settings", which assumes this is a phenomenon ONLY occurs in the international setting, very biased, even self-centered. I am 99% sure no patients in anywhere in the world would want an uncertified person to practice on them. If anyone who is currently in college or graduated believe he or she has the ability and capability to practice medicine, and list them on their primary, then he or she is the source of the problem. From common sense point of view, a shadowing student should not be allowed to practice any medical procedures. I believe he or she should turn down the offer if one is made by the shadowing physician. On another note, many pre-med students are simply helping out with pharmacy errands, observing physicians, doing patient receptions..etc. The point is many international activities are not "invasive procedures" [emphasis added]. Please correct me if I am wrong, for an example, I believe no UC medical schools look down on traveling to TJ, Mexico to help out the local community by participating/volunteering in clinics.

 

[deleted804295]

Hi Everyone!

So apparently, I signed up for this one honors trip my university does twice a year where they bring like 20 premeds to the Dominican Republic and let them work in clinics. I can absolutely say however, that we will not be doing anything that is illegal or outside of our competency. We will mostly be scribing and observing. Anyways, I keep hearing how these trips can negatively impact an application because adcoms look down upon these trips and I completely understand why. If I were to mention explicitly that I did not do anything that could be liable would this still be an okay experience to include? Just to clarify, I am not doing this to look good to an adcom. I was originally doing it because I wanted to learn about the healthcare systems in other countries. I won't say that it's because I want to help the underserved, because while I do want to do this, this trip is definitely not the way to do so because we are undergrads and can't do anything to help other than watch really.

Furthermore, I am part of an organization called Partners in Health whose main purpose is to educate about creating sustainable healthcare systems in other countries. There is another DR trip in the spring that I was planning on going on where we would simply help educate the communities about sustainable healthcare and assist the organization's physician in training community members to help provide care. We would also however be shadowing doctors during that trip but personally, even as an ambitious premed, if a doctor asked me to suture someone I would decline because I am not qualified to do so.

I guess my main question is, will these experiences hurt me? Should I just focus on working with the underserved in my community at home instead? I have a huge interest in global healthcare policy and economics so I figured these trips would help me learn more, but if they aren't something I can really list as my most meaningful, then I want to know ahead of time. Can I just do them for the sake of personal experience and not put them on my CV/resume/application?

Any insight is greatly appreciated!!!

I'm really confused here, how are you as an undergrad qualified to be "educating" physicians in training in other countries?

Edit: You as an undergrad "can't do anything but watch", really?? What do you expect to do, perform medical procedures without a license? Voluntourism does more harm than good. Just because these countries are performing worse than the United States does not mean you know more than these individuals about their own countries. You don't know the culture surrounding medical care there, you don't know what the dynamics are between doctor and patient care, you know nothing about how politics influence medicine there.

How about instead of being so focused on doing applied work, why don't you use these experiences to learn about the culture revolving medicine in these countries?

There are few things I hate more than an individual from a first world country with a hero complex, don't be that individual as an unqualified undergrad.

 

[LizzyM]

Here's an old thread that reviews this very issue:
Volunteering Abroad, Joseph Kony, and Why You Shouldn't Do It

Going to the land of your birth, where you speak the language, and spending a significant amount of time during breaks is different than going to a place where you don't speak the language and spending 7-14 days.

 

[SN20SCH]

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[Goro]

Hi Everyone!

So apparently, I signed up for this one honors trip my university does twice a year where they bring like 20 premeds to the Dominican Republic and let them work in clinics. I can absolutely say however, that we will not be doing anything that is illegal or outside of our competency. We will mostly be scribing and observing. Anyways, I keep hearing how these trips can negatively impact an application because adcoms look down upon these trips and I completely understand why. If I were to mention explicitly that I did not do anything that could be liable would this still be an okay experience to include? Just to clarify, I am not doing this to look good to an adcom. I was originally doing it because I wanted to learn about the healthcare systems in other countries. I won't say that it's because I want to help the underserved, because while I do want to do this, this trip is definitely not the way to do so because we are undergrads and can't do anything to help other than watch really.

Furthermore, I am part of an organization called Partners in Health whose main purpose is to educate about creating sustainable healthcare systems in other countries. There is another DR trip in the spring that I was planning on going on where we would simply help educate the communities about sustainable healthcare and assist the organization's physician in training community members to help provide care. We would also however be shadowing doctors during that trip but personally, even as an ambitious premed, if a doctor asked me to suture someone I would decline because I am not qualified to do so.

I guess my main question is, will these experiences hurt me? Should I just focus on working with the underserved in my community at home instead? I have a huge interest in global healthcare policy and economics so I figured these trips would help me learn more, but if they aren't something I can really list as my most meaningful, then I want to know ahead of time. Can I just do them for the sake of personal experience and not put them on my CV/resume/application?

Any insight is greatly appreciated!!!

Volenturism = medical tourism

 

[deleted804295]

@SN20SCH
My apologies if I've came off rough. If it sounds like I'm annoyed it's because I am. I'm annoyed with people going to places like my home country and messing with the people there simply to throw crap on their resume.

I'm going to dip soon since you've already received an answer but to answer the new question you've raised. :

"My point is, is it worth it to go if I won't be able to explain to an adcom that it was meaningful."

Yes, if you truly care about the work that you're doing. Life is more than just admissions. If it's not worth spending your money on it right now because you can't please an admissions committee, it won't be money worth spending to you in the future when you are a doctor.

 

[SN20SCH]

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[Goro]

Medical tourism? That's a thing? 😱. A quick search gives me this:

Medical tourism refers to people traveling to a country other than their own to obtain medical treatment. In the past this usually referred to those who traveled from less-developed countries to major medicalcenters in highly developed countries for treatment unavailable at home.

I got the term from a pathologist colleague of mine. The usage meant is not what you found, but for these CV boosting trips that really have nothing to do with helping people overseas, but everything about the applicant.

 

[Goro]

@SN20SCH
My apologies if I've came off rough. If it sounds like I'm annoyed it's because I am. I'm annoyed with people going to places like my home country and messing with the people there simply to throw crap on their resume.

I'm going to dip soon since you've already received an answer but to answer the new question you've raised. :

"My point is, is it worth it to go if I won't be able to explain to an adcom that it was meaningful."

Yes, if you truly care about the work that you're doing. Life is more than just admissions. If it's not worth spending your money on it right now because you can't please an admissions committee, it won't be money worth spending to you in the future when you are a doctor.

If they even do that. Most of the time, it's to visit Nana/Abuela/Ajiima and maybe they're stick their head into a local hospital, say hello to the local doctor, and then call it's "medical mission".