Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Greenville - Global Health Experiences
Many Med-Peds residents are interested in global health. Given our unique training, Med-Peds physicians are well-positioned to provide a wide range of health care services to the world’s populations that are most in need. Med-Peds residents at Prisma Health undertake a variety of international trips to provide medical care and relief around the world. Prisma Health has been very supportive of global health trips, and residents may participate in as many as two month-long trips during residency.
Below is a list of international experiences recently undertaken by our Med-Peds residents, highlighting our three most popular global health trips to Brazil, Guatemala and Kenya.
Brazil
The popular annual Brazil medical mission trip occurs every fall and is led by former Prisma Health Med-Peds graduate and current attending, Dr. Jeremy Byrd.
Multiple Med-Peds and categorical residents have gone on this mission trip, and some have completed the trip multiple times. During this elective rotation, residents spend most of their time in Fortaleza, Brazil. Residents conduct medical physicals and triage visits with the children of Davis Lar Orphanage and in favelas (a Brazilian slum) in Oitao Pretoa. They work with a local organization called Shine that focuses on children that live on the street. Working here enables residents to witness and better understand the environments from which many of the children at the orphanage have come.
During this rotation, residents also staff “walk-in” clinics in the Brazil interior and countryside in neighborhoods, churches, or hospitals.
Guatemala
Residents are also able to volunteer on multiple medical mission trips to Guatemala yearly through True North Missions, a non-profit organization founded in 2000 with the express purpose of providing primary medical and dental care to the underserved children of Central America, led by Dr. Alan Barber (DDS) and an assigned physician leader.
Residents travel by boat down the Rio Dulce river flowing from Lake Isabel to the Gulf of Honduras and staff “walk-in” clinics in the very isolated villages off the Rio Dulce river. They also work at Casa Guatemala Orphanage performing medical physicals and focused triage visits. Further mission trip detail and general information on True North Missions.
Individual Resident Experiences
Residents may also engage in their own global health experiences. A few examples of individual resident experiences are below:
Nigeria
Amaka Ofodu, class of 2022, completed an international elective in Nigeria. Read more about Amaka’s experience in Nigeria below:
“I chose to spend four weeks in my home, Nigeria. Nigeria is an affluent country with thousands of ethnic cultures and languages, with rich entertainment, bringing Nollywood and Afrobeats to the world.
Unfortunately, resources are limited, access to medicine is difficult and antimicrobial resistance is rising. The conditions we were managing were similar to those we see in the US, including tonsillitis, heart failure exacerbations, COPD exacerbations, fevers in infants and plenty of acute gastroenteritis. I learned how to only order what the patient needs in regard to medicine and workup, as the financial strain of medical care was a clear and constant concern.
Just as we see in the US, the kids are just as playful and resilient and the adults hopeful and grateful. I was able to rotate at a private pediatric hospital, government sponsored medicine hospital, and private clinic which allowed me to see how healthcare is practiced across the board. This experience gave me a chance to explore my native country, visit family and serve my people. It was insightful, fun and pushed me to new limits that definitely impacts how I practice today.”
Kenya
Sarah Calvert, class of 2022, completed an international elective at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya through World Medical Missions in 2021.
The following is Sarah’s account of her experience in Kenya:
“The first two weeks, I worked with an Internal Medicine team as we cared for inpatient adults. The final half of the month I served as part of the inpatient Pediatrics team.
Some of the most common diagnoses that I encountered on the inpatient adult wards included advanced malignancies, decompensated heart failure, pneumonia, disseminated tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
Even caring for patients with conditions I encounter regularly here in Greenville I learned a great deal about how care is different in a resource-limited setting. Everything from our available labs to our antimicrobial options and resistance patterns were slightly different, which taught me to think critically about how to care for each patient.
On the Pediatrics side I saw a great deal of severe acute malnutrition, malaria, premature infants, seizures, and pneumonia. My duties included daily rounds, documentation, taking call, goals of care discussions, teaching, and procedures. Our rounding teams consisted of residents, students, nutritionists, and clinical officers. Teaching took place during morning rounds as well as lunchtime didactics.
While in Kijabe I stayed in an apartment near the hospital. When not on call I was able to go on safari and hike a nearby peak to see amazing views of the Great Rift Valley.
I had a phenomenal experience, and I’m thankful that I had the support of my Med-Peds family here in Greenville every step of the way. When I was applying for residency, I knew an international rotation was something I planned to pursue and in part chose Greenville because I knew that experience would be possible here. As someone pursuing long-term work abroad my month in Kijabe was integral in helping to define my career goals and figure out how to tailor the rest of my residency to achieve those goals.”
Kenya
Teresa Williams, a 2016 graduate of our program and current Med-Peds hospitalist, did a month-long rotation at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya during her residency training.
The following is Teresa’s account of her experiences in Kenya:
“During my 3rd year, I was privileged to serve through Samaritan’s Purse at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya. The hospital has approximately 280 beds and serves as a regional referral center for northern Kenya and is the top pediatric neurosurgical center in Eastern Africa. Staff members are approximately 50% Kenyan and 50% expatriate. Kijabe houses programs for training young physicians and nurses from all over Africa. The rotation encompassed 4 weeks, though what I learned there easily could have engrossed 4 years. It was true med-peds at its best.
I worked for two weeks on the woman’s ward, where I was in charge of patients in the hospital’s step-down unit. During that time, I took call as the supervising physician where I saw TB meningitis, malaria and advanced stage HIV, among other things. I had the opportunity to supervise the Kenyan interns and teach a few lectures. Daunting as it was, I was always supported by the local staff who were just a phone call away (and a short walk up the road, as they all live within walking distance to the hospital).
In my last two weeks, I shared time in the NICU, pediatric ward and outpatient pediatric clinic. There I worked through one of the worst multidrug resistant outbreaks the NICU had ever seen, cared for many children with severe hydrocephalus and helped the team work up a host of children with various infections including tetanus.
I also had a chance to teach and supervise throughout my time with the pediatric team.
Kijabe was an experience that I will never forget. It helped to hone my physical diagnosis skills, introduced me to new pathology and new ways of approaching old pathology, built my confidence as a physician and made me appreciate all that we have in US healthcare. It also reminded me why I was called in to medicine in the first place and overall made me a better med-peds doctor.
If you are interested in hearing more, feel free to read through the blog I wrote in my time there. I’d love to help you set up your own Kijabe experience, so feel free to contact me at Teresa.Williams3@prismahealth.org.”
Other Experiences
Global Health experiences are not limited to these locations. A resident may arrange for any international medical trips of their choosing, as long as they adhere to the Graduate Medical Education Committee Policy guidelines.
As an example, Dr. Sarah Hinton, our program director and a 2014 graduate of our program, completed an elective on border medicine and environmental health through the South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) program through the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine in San Antonio. She spent a month in Laredo, Texas, a city on the Texas-Mexico border.
During this elective, Sarah studied many of the health care challenges and public health threats that are commonly encountered on the expansive Texas-Mexico border.