Playing Catch-Up Part 1: Medical Stuff
Okay, it's been almost three weeks since I last posted. Sorry about that. But hopefully, that will give you some idea of how different my last two weeks of elective were.
Paediatrics was fantastic. Instead of half a dozen doctors responsible for the ward, ED and clinics, there were only three doctors covering half of one of the three paediatric wards. They all spoke English to greater or lesser degree (the Arabic intern's was the worst, but tha's ok, cause he was busy speaking to all our Bedouin patients) and the teaching which I bothered attending (very little) was also in English for the benefit of the Columbia University students who were there on the Paediatrics part of their tuition. There's a program by which they come from the States (and Canada) to study three years of medicine in Israel on an 'International Medicine' degree, which when translated into cynicism is 'Farming Out Medical Tuition'. They were all really nice and interested in cultural difference to the extent that they requested and turned up to a talk on Aboriginal medicine and associated cultural issues. Even students I didn't know and who were from different years turned up to this completely optional talk - there were probably 2-3 dozen people there.
And of course the medicine was great. I was actually allowed to take on a couple of patients; I'd read their files (I offered to go in cold, but the doctor in charge told me that if I was acting as an intern, I should read the damn file) and do a follow-up exam and asked any relevant questions I could stutter out in Hebrew. It had to be in Hebrew, because as I hinted, most of the patients (' families) were first-language-Arabic-speakers/Bedouins. The last day I counted our patients, and of the 16 children, only two were possibly NOT bedouins/arabic (I say possibly because I didn't see one but his name was 'Troy' and threw in the /Arabic because one's parents weren't wearing traditional Bedouin clothing, which of course doesn't mean they weren't Bedouins). Like I saw on Neurology, the situation was often like that of the more remote Aboriginal communities - lots of burns and trauma, and also dysentry. Oh, and lots of really odd, seen-nowhere-else congenital conditions (like chronic diarrhoea and failure to thrive due to total non-absorption of practically ALL nutrients, so they receive all their nutrition directly into the bloodstream) due to consanguinous marriages. Before my first day, I'd never have thought to ask the parents if they were related/from the same family. I wish I'd had a better grip on the tribes in the area, because I had no idea what the doctors were on about when they started talking about it! Anyway, I got to write in the patient notes (even in English!) and present people on rounds, which usually started around 10/11 if I was tagging along with the doctors or 9:30 with the students, which was usually enough time for coffee before having to present, and occasionally also pudding if you were in the mood and the kids were too sick to eat theirs and you got to it before the nurses and other students. ;)
The children's ward/building was really nice and new. It was also really busy, since Sorkoa hospital covers the entire south of the country. I don't think they have as much money as PMH since there weren't all the toys and TVs, but they have some things that PMH doesn't, such as a cinema (complete with popcorn machine) and a bomb-proof area of the ward, where they took all the kids when there were rockets being fired at Beersheva from Gaza during Operation Cast Lead last year.
So that was my medical elective, finished as of last Thursday! Feels odd. I haven't quite had the experience that others have, medically speaking. But I guess all I really wanted out of these six weeks was a relatively slack time, a good educational experience and a better idea of which way I might go with my medical career. Probably got about 60-70% of all that. Oh, and the paeds consultant said she'd be a reference for me for internship stuff, which is useful.
I'll write up some extra posts with other stuff and maybe add some photos when I'm on my own computer
Paediatrics was fantastic. Instead of half a dozen doctors responsible for the ward, ED and clinics, there were only three doctors covering half of one of the three paediatric wards. They all spoke English to greater or lesser degree (the Arabic intern's was the worst, but tha's ok, cause he was busy speaking to all our Bedouin patients) and the teaching which I bothered attending (very little) was also in English for the benefit of the Columbia University students who were there on the Paediatrics part of their tuition. There's a program by which they come from the States (and Canada) to study three years of medicine in Israel on an 'International Medicine' degree, which when translated into cynicism is 'Farming Out Medical Tuition'. They were all really nice and interested in cultural difference to the extent that they requested and turned up to a talk on Aboriginal medicine and associated cultural issues. Even students I didn't know and who were from different years turned up to this completely optional talk - there were probably 2-3 dozen people there.
And of course the medicine was great. I was actually allowed to take on a couple of patients; I'd read their files (I offered to go in cold, but the doctor in charge told me that if I was acting as an intern, I should read the damn file) and do a follow-up exam and asked any relevant questions I could stutter out in Hebrew. It had to be in Hebrew, because as I hinted, most of the patients (' families) were first-language-Arabic-speakers/Bedouins. The last day I counted our patients, and of the 16 children, only two were possibly NOT bedouins/arabic (I say possibly because I didn't see one but his name was 'Troy' and threw in the /Arabic because one's parents weren't wearing traditional Bedouin clothing, which of course doesn't mean they weren't Bedouins). Like I saw on Neurology, the situation was often like that of the more remote Aboriginal communities - lots of burns and trauma, and also dysentry. Oh, and lots of really odd, seen-nowhere-else congenital conditions (like chronic diarrhoea and failure to thrive due to total non-absorption of practically ALL nutrients, so they receive all their nutrition directly into the bloodstream) due to consanguinous marriages. Before my first day, I'd never have thought to ask the parents if they were related/from the same family. I wish I'd had a better grip on the tribes in the area, because I had no idea what the doctors were on about when they started talking about it! Anyway, I got to write in the patient notes (even in English!) and present people on rounds, which usually started around 10/11 if I was tagging along with the doctors or 9:30 with the students, which was usually enough time for coffee before having to present, and occasionally also pudding if you were in the mood and the kids were too sick to eat theirs and you got to it before the nurses and other students. ;)
The children's ward/building was really nice and new. It was also really busy, since Sorkoa hospital covers the entire south of the country. I don't think they have as much money as PMH since there weren't all the toys and TVs, but they have some things that PMH doesn't, such as a cinema (complete with popcorn machine) and a bomb-proof area of the ward, where they took all the kids when there were rockets being fired at Beersheva from Gaza during Operation Cast Lead last year.
So that was my medical elective, finished as of last Thursday! Feels odd. I haven't quite had the experience that others have, medically speaking. But I guess all I really wanted out of these six weeks was a relatively slack time, a good educational experience and a better idea of which way I might go with my medical career. Probably got about 60-70% of all that. Oh, and the paeds consultant said she'd be a reference for me for internship stuff, which is useful.
I'll write up some extra posts with other stuff and maybe add some photos when I'm on my own computer