Medical students learn about practicing medicine with limited resources in Peru

Five UCLA medical students flew to Peru shortly before graduation to complete a clinical rotation at a hospital in Iquitos. Surrounded by the Amazon jungle, it ’s the world’s largest city that’s unreachable by road.After four years of working with the latest technology and state-of-the-art treatments, the students found their interaction with patients, who sometimes traveled weeks on the Amazon River by boat from remote villages,  a life-changing experience.Organized by theglobal health program in theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the three-week training, which was captured byNBC News, immersed the budding doctors in an entirely new culture and health care system. The tightknit group included Alexandra “A.J.” Greene, Aleksandr Gorin, Nahda Harati, Molly Sprague and Diana Partida.Limited access to the equipment and medications that the students took for granted at UCLA forced them to trust their instincts and depend on the new skills they acquired.“I learned to rely on my diagnostic findings from physical examinations, and how to make decisions in clinical settings where resources are not readily available,” said Partida, who added that what she learned in Peru will make her a better doctor in “countless” ways. “The experience taugh t me to recognize my emotional resilience and to have confidence in the training I received at UCLA.”The students encountered tropical diseases, an unfamiliar Spanish dialect and prickly gender dynamics in a hospit...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news