A Guide to Choosing the Best Volunteering Program Abroad for Medical Students
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Are you a pre-med, medical, or nursing student planning to step ahead in the career ladder and travel abroad on a medical mission trip? Volunteering Solutions has many enriching and affordable healthcare volunteering programs across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where you’ll get the opportunity to apply your theoretical knowledge and turn it into practical skills while shadowing professional doctors and nurses.
In most of the developing countries, the healthcare system isn’t very advanced and the public hospitals are usually understaffed. As a volunteer, you can help the doctors and nurses on duty at the hospitals or clinics, and simultaneously gain first-hand work experience.
Not only that but once you step out of your comfort zone to volunteer abroad for a healthcare program, you’ll also earn some extra academic credits after completing your program with Volunteering Solutions. This will surely boost your CV/ resume, and help you to stand ahead of your peers.
Why should you volunteer abroad as a medical student?
1. Gain incredible work experience
As we’ve already mentioned above, volunteering abroad as a medical/nursing student will allow you to shadow healthcare professionals and give you the chance to learn from them. You’ll also get to choose the departments (based on your knowledge and areas of interest) understand how to deal with patients and take the best possible measures that would help them heal.
2. Understand deeply about the healthcare scenario of the country
As a medical volunteer abroad, you’ll mostly be working in a developing country (with some underprivileged communities) where the healthcare scenario is not as good as that of the First World countries. Many of the public hospitals in these places are understaffed, and there’s a lack of resources, hence it often becomes a challenge for the local doctors and nurses to provide good care to the patients. While working in such situations, you’ll gain a fair idea about the challenges faced and also get a deeper understanding of the global healthcare disparities.
3. Opportunity to gain new skills
Once you travel and volunteer abroad, you’ll have a completely different way of looking at the world. Your clinical skills will improve, as you’ll be trained under professionals. Your time management skills will improve, and you’ll become a more empathetic and adaptive human being. You’ll know that even in the remotest parts of the world, where English is probably not spoken so commonly, you would still manage to connect with people and help them ease their pain.
4. Widen your social network
You’ll get to work alongside a bunch of motivated and like-minded peers, and together, you’ll be working as a team at the project site. And even before you know it, you’ll end up making friends for a lifetime. Volunteering abroad is a great opportunity to broaden your social network and boost your professional sphere as well.
How to choose the best healthcare volunteering program abroad for medical or nursing students?
1. Choose your destination
The first step to choosing the best volunteering program is to decide where you would like to go. Do your research, find out which program suits your interests, and how well you can contribute as a medical student in that country. In some countries, like India and Thailand, the healthcare scenario is a little more developed than in countries like Kenya and Tanzania.
So you need to make a decision based on how you think you can contribute, and what you’re looking forward to learning from this experience.
2. Decide your volunteering duration
Once you’ve decided where you’d like to go and volunteer, decide how much time you would like to spend there. While most of the healthcare volunteering programs are available for a minimum of one week, we would suggest that you spend at least two weeks, to contribute effectively, and also to learn and understand the region’s prevalent health issues.
In the past, we have hosted medical students who ended up staying for a month in the host country, and they also organized healthcare camps and awareness campaigns. So, if you stay for longer, you can always make a better impact.
3. Join a medical mission trip abroad with a group
As a medical/nursing student, you can always take the lead and convince your friends and batchmates to join a group volunteering program abroad. Imagine, if you alone can make a difference, how beautiful the impact would be when you volunteer as a group.
Volunteering Solutions offers customized itineraries for medical group volunteers across various countries including India, Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, and Peru. You can also join a medical internship program abroad, which is an equally enriching learning journey.
What are the requirements to join the medical and healthcare volunteer projects abroad?
Here are a few requirements to follow, to be a medical volunteer abroad with Volunteering Solutions.
- Age Requirement: You must be at least 18 years old.
- Be Open-Minded: Maintain an open mind and a flexible approach to working in a new environment, collaborating with peers and professionals.
- Eligibility: The program is open to medical, pre-med, and nursing students. We also have programs for students pursuing dentistry.
- Required Documents: Applicants must submit additional documents such as a Resume/CV and a copy of their Passport. You can also mention your educational qualifications and submit the necessary documents.
- Health and Fitness: Ensure you are physically fit and in good health before signing up for the volunteer program.
- Background Check: A clean criminal background check is mandatory, and applicants must have no prior convictions.
Which are the most popular healthcare volunteering programs?
Medical Volunteer Project in Nairobi, Kenya
The medical volunteering program in Kenya is undoubtedly one of the most popular programs among pre-med, medical, and nursing students. As a volunteer, you’ll be working in healthcare clinics, dispensaries, and public hospitals around the city of Nairobi.
While pre-med students usually assist the doctors and nurses in doing the basic day-to-day stuff like checking the weight and temperature of the patients and cleaning wounds, the medical students can take up tasks including checking blood pressure, suturing wounds, doing rounds with patients, and work in areas of maternal health, surgery, laboratories, counseling, and testing, etc.
Medical Volunteer Program in Arusha, Tanzania
The medical volunteering program in Arusha is meant for third or final-year medical/ nursing students who are keen to work alongside professionals and gain first-hand international work experience. As a volunteer, you can choose to work in different departments such as gynecology, general medicine, physiotherapy department, First Aid department, laboratory and research, and X-ray facilities.
Volunteering Solutions offers Dentistry and Elective placements in Tanzania. As a dentistry volunteer, you will assist in the dental department of hospital placements in Arusha.
Rural Medical Volunteering Program in the Philippines
Beyond the crystal blue waters and the palm-fringed beaches, there lies yet another world in the Philippines that needs your attention. If you’re a medical student, looking forward to traveling to an offbeat destination and making a difference, this is your chance.
As a medical volunteer, you can make a significant impact on the lives of underprivileged locals by working at the clinic and providing free medical services to them, working with professional doctors and nurses. Your main tasks would include assisting the local doctor with daily consultations, helping with local government-based initiatives such as vaccinations or deworming, etc, depending on your knowledge and experience.
Pre-Medical & Nursing Healthcare Volunteer Program Sri Lanka
Curated essentially for pre-med and nursing students, this volunteer program will help you to understand the healthcare scenario of Sri Lanka, while working in the quaint beach town of Galle. This is more of an observation-based role, meant for students who are still in their early years of medical studies and are keen to gain international work experience.
Dental Elective Internship in Peru
This program is located in the city of Cusco and it is meant for dentistry students who are looking forward to working with professionals, to learn through first-hand work experience. The internship work mainly includes assisting the dentists in their daily tasks, helping in the sterilization of supplies as well as doing hands-on work depending on their medical and experience background.
Medical and Nursing Internship in India
The medical internship program in New Delhi offers incredible learning opportunities to medical and nursing students. The healthcare scenario in India has developed manifolds in the last few years, and as an intern, this will be your chance to observe the professionals closely and understand the challenges that still exist here.
Healthcare Internship Program in Nepal
As a medical intern in Nepal, you’ll be working in local hospitals or clinics in Kathmandu, shadowing professional doctors and nurses, and observing their daily treatment methods. Depending on your knowledge and expertise, you’ll be assigned various tasks including procedures like suturing wounds, giving vaccinations, checking blood pressure, and maintaining records.
No matter which country you travel to, your journey as a medical student on a mission trip abroad will be marked as a significant chapter of your career. To know more about our programs, write to us at [email protected] and our Program Advisors will connect with you.
Also, follow us on Instagram to know more about what our volunteers are up to, and connect with our past volunteers to learn about their experiences.
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