STUDENT INTERNSHIP & EXTERNSHIP REFLECTIONS
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
T
AUTHOR Nicholas Chen
he mountainside of Kabale, Uganda
is beautiful during the rain. Water
pours or patters on the aluminum
roof above our outdoor classroom,
sending rivulets and tendrils of mud
into the grass surrounding our living
space. Clouds stretched like wisps of
cotton nestle between rolling hills, dividing
the terraced land and blending in with the faint fog settled onto
the distant mountains. Then the sun arcs slowly across the horizon,
drying the earth, clearing the sky, and birds fly out, warbling in
some unfamiliar fashion.
This panorama framed my time with Kigezi Healthcare Founda-
tion (KIHEFO) and Children Family Health International (CFHI)
during our school’s medical trip to Uganda. Chilly, raining mornings
were followed by scorching afternoons. Exhilarating, demanding
and busy days were followed by dull, lazy ones. Physical labor on a
local water well was followed by mental labor, learning about local
nutrition and maternal health. But the biggest contrast was found
in our group of American students, thrust suddenly into an African
country and culture. The people of Kabale were quiet and polite,
but had easy, boisterous laughs, and were exceptionally kind and
accommodating. Our freshman student group on the other hand
was impatient at times, overeager in pursuit of medicine, jumping
at the opportunity to interact with real patients in the clinics. Those
moments drive us and keep us motivated during long hours in the
library that feel like they distance us from our passion. Our first
opportunity took the form of a community outreach, where hun-
dreds of locals came from the surrounding countryside for a free
clinic that KIHEFO organized.
It was an incredible experience. Our group helped with the care
of nearly 200 patients in a day. We were paired with local medical
students and RNs, and immediately started to see patients in tents
that had been set up outside a local maternity clinic. The Ugandan
medical students were immensely knowledgeable, and took the
time to translate for us when needed, explaining the common dis-
eases in the country, and even prescribed medications. Interacting
with the students and noticing the subtle differences between our
respective medical educations was an interesting and invaluable
learning experience. They were deliberate and methodical when
taking patient histories, which tested my patience at times. But
I realized my exasperation was borne of our cultural differences.
Their thoroughness was often necessitated by an environment
where the ability to perform diagnostic screening and testing was
severely limited.
Particularly memorable: the director of KIHEFO, Dr. Geofrey
Anguyo, took a group of students into a maternity ward. After seeing
the patient, he began to ask us questions about what we thought the
problem might be. “You are trying to build a
rocket ship!” he scoffed when our differentials
wandered too far, our thoughts filled with uni-
corns and unusual pathologies, our treatment
plans far-fetched and unrealistic. Dr. Anguyo
made it seem easy. His mind was sharp and
incisive, delineating between one disease and
the next, and pragmatic when considering
treatments and acknowledging the realities of
his health care system. There was a moment of
silence as he sat on the bed and looked around
at all of us, his pedagogical nods imploring us
to listen and learn.
In that moment, I felt a shared sense of
comradery with the people around me. I saw
a glimpse of what being a doctor is like. Every-
one has a different story about why they chose
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JANUARY 2020
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