Benefits of International Medical Internships
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Are you a medical or nursing student, eager to travel abroad and serve society while learning through your experiences? Well, this is your chance then… Doing something good for society always gives a feeling of satisfaction – and for doctors & nurses, that feeling can be felt every day, by lessening the pain of others while treating them with utmost love and care.
For a moment, even if we keep the social work and all the goodness associated with a medical service, interning for a medical project abroad can immensely boost experiential learning, as you’ll be actively engaged with a healthcare system and work with experts, as opposed to the system of learning in a classroom.
One of the biggest benefits of experiential learning for medical students is that it allows them to learn the practical aspects of any knowledge that they have obtained from the theories and textbooks. Being a medical intern abroad will also escalate your potential and help you to stand ahead of your peers.
If you are still in doubt, then we’ll help you to understand this better. Here’s why medical, pre-med and nursing students should be a part of medical internships abroad:
1. Incredible opportunity to work with professionals.
The most important aspect of a medical internship is that it gives you a chance of working with professional doctors and nurses, who are experts in their field. As a medical, pre-med or nursing student, you can learn a lot by shadowing them, at a hospital or healthcare center, where they have to deal with hundreds of patients, each day.
You’ll learn how to quickly act in an emergency situation and also the tactics of dealing with different kinds of patients. Being surrounded by experienced medical practitioners will surely charge you up and inspire you to do better work. You can also clear your doubts and seek help from them, as and when required.
2. Figure out your areas of interest and specialize on that path.
While interning at a healthcare center/ hospital, you’ll get to choose your departments varying from orthopedics to cardiology, gynecology to physiotherapy and much more. While shadowing the doctors in that particular department, you’ll understand whether the work suits your interest or not.
It’ll be a good way to find out your areas of interest and also to understand more about the skills you possess. Once you finish your internship and gain ample first-hand work experience, you can go back and study further, specializing in that particular area in which you’re interested.
3. Learn from your peers while interning with them.
In today’s date, peer learning is considered to be something extremely valuable, and you’ll know its value only when you’re there, working along with other medical students. During the sojourn, the entire team of interns usually live together under one roof, eat together, travel together, and of course, work together.
It’s one of the best places where you have the opportunity to share your knowledge in the field of medicine with those from different parts of the world. While interning, you will get to know about the healthcare systems and other medical issues that persist in their regions. You can also share your skills and ideas with them, and end up learning from them as well.
4. You’ll get to know about the medical conditions of the Third World countries.
Most of the medical internship opportunities are provided in Third World countries, where the availability of resources is limited. However, the medical staff who functions at hospitals in these regions have paved their way to make the best of whatever resource they have in hand.
This will be great learning for you to groom yourself to work even in the toughest of the conditions. You can even interact with the doctors and nurses in order to get a better insight into how things have changed in that particular country, over the years. Also, your contribution will be immensely valued by the staff as well as the patients.
5. Get the opportunity to organize medical camps and help in spreading awareness.
If you are interning with a group of other medical students, then you might get a chance to organize healthcare/ dental camps in the outskirts of the cities or in some rural areas where there’s usually no proper medical setup. You can also organize vaccination camps as well as medical awareness camps. All these would be a brilliant way of learning, which you may otherwise not get to experience.
You can meet the locals, talk to them, know more about their problems and possibly work on finding solutions to ease their pains. You can also guide them to live a good life, teach them about sanitation and provide them with adequate support.
6. An opportunity to travel and explore a new destination, apart from working there!
Well, it’s not just about work, but interning abroad also gives you the opportunity to explore a new destination. You aren’t just another tourist there, but a traveler who’ll be in constant touch with the locals. You’ll get to visit the local markets, know about their culture and lifestyle, binge on the local cuisine as well as explore the heritage sites, monuments, and other popular destinations.
What is more interesting is that you’ll get to visit the remote areas and villages, which are not typical tourist destinations, but have a distinct beauty of their own to explore.
7. This internship will boost your career/ CV, endowing you with priceless experiences!
Particularly for medical students, experiential learning is very important as I’ve mentioned at the beginning of the article. To say the least, having an international internship experience with a reputed organization will boost your career tremendously, and keep you ahead of all your peers.
It’ll be a star on your CV and the experience will help you from time to time, while dealing with patients, at different stages of life. It’ll definitely be one of the best learning experiences you’ll ever have!
8. Immense self-satisfaction and happiness that would last forever!
You’ll also be emotionally benefitted from this service and the experience that you’ll gather. Being a part of a good cause will give you immense self-satisfaction and make you feel good about your actions. This will leave a positive impact on your physical and emotional health, keeping you happier than others.
Doing something good for someone else will help you combat depression, stress, or any other adversities. It’ll also encourage and inspire others, to follow in your footsteps and take up something as worthy as this. Maybe you can encourage your seniors to join the medical volunteering program abroad, which also is equally worthy.
Find out the difference between Medical Internships and Medical Volunteering, here!
Medical internships have the dual benefit of committing to the service of the most vulnerable communities while providing an opportunity to develop both personally and professionally. If you are a pre-med or medical student who aspires to be a part of a good cause and serve people across borders, then you must take the step and opt for a medical internship opportunity abroad. To understand the benefits better, you have to be a part of it.
We can also offer customized medical internships and volunteering opportunities for student groups who are keen to work abroad together. For more information about medical internships, drop us a mail at [email protected] and our Program Advisors will get back to you!
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