Pre-Health Shadowing Abroad is worth it; Here’s Why

Pre-Health Shadowing Abroad is worth it; Here’s Why

Travelling abroad to shadow as a pre health student is a once in lifetime opportunity and it’s benefits are never measurable.

Whether you are on track to become a medical doctor, a physician assistant, a nurse, a midwife or a dentist here are four benefits of a pre health shadowing internship abroad:

Benefit #1: Broaden your horizons by getting exposure to global Healthcare

Traveling abroad for a pre health shadowing internship broadens the horizons for any pre health student in the exposure to the medical field. It opens one to the idea that medicine is a global field and that differences and disparities exist when it come to the healthcare system. It is also an opportunity to get to interact with new and unique disease conditions which are alien to your home country.

Benefit # 2: Determine if medicine is the right career path for you

Undertaking a shadowing internship abroad is a good opportunity for you to focus on one area of medicine and be able to determine if the healthcare career is the right path for you, having gotten the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in a healthcare system. Through the shadowing experience abroad, you will gain a deeper understanding of your motivations and what kind of health profession you would like to pursue as well as enhance your confidence in a hospital setting. Through observing a healthcare professional day in day out, you will be able to enhance your understanding of the health system  and thus enable you to discover if a healthcare career is the right path for you.

Benefit # 3: Shared learning with students from all over the world

In a pre health shadowing abroad, you get to interact with other participants from different parts of the world. You have the opportunity to create a community with them and you can all share your different perspectives on healthcare as well as share on how different your health care systems are thus building a camaraderie with peers from around the world

Benefit # 4: Immersion in a new culture

Travelling abroad to undertake a pre health shadowing internship also gives you an opportunity to get immersed in a new culture which is quite different from the one at home. You will get to see how different cultures affect the delivery of healthcare in some parts e.g some communities in sub saharan africa believe that cancer is caused as a result of witchcraft. You will also get to learn some aspects of a new culture e.g language, traditions and cuisines and taking the local cuisines just to mention a few. This way you will appreciate the diversity of culture across the world

by Elective Africa