Summer Abroad: CFHI vs Amerispan vs ???

[Gifted Hands]

I'm looking to go abroad for my summer between M1/M2 to a Spanish-speaking country so I can 1) learn Spanish and 2) do some cool clinical observations.

Some people have thrown around the names CFHI and Amerispan. Does anyone have any experiences with these programs? (good or bad). I don't want a program where I'm going to be doing glorified shadowing. I'd prefer something where they let you work with patients (maybe interview?) and practice your Spanish at the same time. But I guess I'll take what I can get...

Does anyone know any good programs outside of these two?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

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[Gifted Hands]

lots of views but no responses... anyone?

 

[krs881]

I imagine the OP already decided, but since there are no responses I'll throw in my two cents (or maybe jsut one cent). I don't know Amerispan (though website is less than impressive), but CFHI has a great reputation. I met their medical director at a conference last month (and saw her speak a couple times and win a Global Health award) and was incredibly impressed. They very much understand the problems associated with sending medical students from the U.S. to developing countries, and work very hard to create useful, ethical and socially responsible programs.

 

[Toxoplasma]

I did the CFHI program in Puerto Escondido the summer after my senior year of college. Granted, I hadn't started any of my medical training yet, but I felt like the program was somewhat disappointing for the medical students. Students were not allowed to do ANYTHING! Also, there was some medical spanish instruction, but I didn't feel that it was adequate in order to really improve, especially if you are a beginner. The classes were only a couple of hours a week. Unless you are really motivated to learn on your own, you wouldn't get much out of it... but if you're learning on your own, why pay so much money?

There were some times that were interesting to me. I mean I saw my first baby being born, but as a third year.... would that really be interesting? Oh but one of the cool things that we got to do was go with the public health brigades into rural villages, but they didn't let us really talk with people. We just kind of followed us around as they just shuttled us around and bragged about what a great job they were doing. Yes they really had done a great job, but I felt that doing projects or presentations and working with people in the communities would have been a much more rewarding experience.

I think that you could find much better programs than this! Maybe look and see if some schools have programs. They seem to be run by doctors who understand what students need and want! Good luck with finding what you're looking for!

 

[darkelven29]

I did the Oaxacca program back in 2006 and also convinced a friend to do the Bolivia program in 2008. I went as premed so didn't get to do much but did learn a lot of Spanish. People who were med students got to do complete history and physical including female exams. If you email CFHI you can talk to previous alumni like myself. Summer programs tend have about 10-20 students at a time.

 

[sproggin]

Anyone interested in learning medical Spanish, having an meaningful medical expereince and learning about social entrepreneurship really needs to check out www.MedSpanish.com. Im not doing the program myself but I'm taking classes from the same instructors (great) and Im doing an International Emergency Medicine Fellowship in the non-profit that sponsors the program (www.pacemd.org). You can choose whatever specialty you want. Were tied in with Ashoka and Gates Foundation, among others. We doing some amazing work. The MDs, residents, med and premeds that come down live in a sweet house, and are in the safest, most beautiful part of Mexico.

I know AMSA-IFMSA very well (I was an ex-official) and CFHI well, if you have any questions about those too.

Happy to help,

Dave Price, MD
PACE International Emergency Medicine Fellow
Attending Physician, Atlanta, GA
[email protected]

 

[Gifted Hands]

I actually ended up doing a program in Quito, Ecuador through Interhealth South America. I had a great experience. It was only for 1st year med students and I didn't feel useless AND got to learn a lot about the culture. Message me for details