There's Electives Abroad and then there's Elective Africa.......

To be direct and precise planning an elective/pre-health placement abroad has never been a walk in the park neither is it a rocket science! Where should I go? Where will I stay? How will I get to the hospital and a number of questions that run in our mind. With vast choices and options to consider it may get difficult and often stressful to find your way through. 

But does it have to be?

Just as there are so many opportunities to start and build a successful healthcare profession so are there pool of opportunities for enriching healthcare placement experiences. With proper preparation, you are sure to get a great placement experience abroad.

And what better time than today?

Unload the burden of organising your placement abroad off your shoulders by talking to our Placement Advisors at www.electiveafrica.com/contact

Submit Your Application

Experience Healthcare in a different hospital setting

Unique aspects of a developing countries health systems ensures that you will you will get exposure into a wider variety of diseases, learn about a different methods of treatment and gain supervised hands-on experience Find Your Program   

Start familiarising with your placement location

Your placement location is very vital while abroad. It determines overly how your experience will be. Your safety should be priority and the opportunity for cultural immersion should be an underlying item to examine. Our locations are well selected to ensure your hospital placement is great and so is your stay Explore your Destination

Share in other students experiences 

I was placed in A&E for 2 Weeks and Psychiatry for 2 weeks. I received exposure to the cultural, legal, psychological and hands on procedural aspects of medicine I was seeking. It was such a privilege to have access to that level of understanding as a non-Swahili not-yet-doctor foreigner......
Read more of Calina's story Here or request for her/other past participants contacts at info@electiveafrica.com

It’s finally a new semester and as you set off you have energy piled up from the festive seasons break.

Whether in clinical years hence at a hospital and only attending classes online or going for period lectures or in undergraduate and thus in heavy lecture schedules you are definitely looking to set off in this semester running. The need to therefore study smart is a lot and below are a few ways to ensure that you do just that.

Be Prepared- Have a plan

Being smart is about working in a well-directed and focused manner, this requires a game plan with very particular study items and how you are looking to set yourself apart in them. For a good plan you will need to identify the key events of your semester and the timings within which they appear to be able to allocate time. Itemizing the activities and related tasks ensures you remain effective in the areas that are core and that way you set out to having a smart semester.

A semester is a summation of days and months which eventually add up to the full semester. Creating and prioritizing what you do daily is crucial to ensuring that you are smart at start and through to the end.

Purpose to Understand and not to memorize

I recall when I attended a human anatomy and physiology classes where every sentence was dominated by jargon. Everything seemed so new to me whether in joints tissues or organs. In such scenarios memorizing and acronyms were my best shot. It’s only later that I learnt those were parts that I actually had and would have worked better if I sought to understand them other that study them for exams. In the complex of fields and subjects, to understand you need to establish links to your studies to the practical applicability.

To further enhance your understanding, it’s important to attach fun to the learning aspects. This helps you remain curious and in so doing enhance your ability to understand more, research more and learn more.

Perfect Your Type of Studying

Part of achieving smart study is knowing what mode of study best suits you.

If you are a virtual learner it’s nice to then convert your learning materials to have more chats, maps and other visual impressions. These will help enhance your understanding and make brainstorming easier for you.

If you are an Auditory learner, then you need to purpose to be present in lectures listen more and have more recordings on various lectures and subsets of your studies to be able to comprehend more information.

If you are more of a Kinesthetic learner, which most of the clinical students are by nature, you need to get out there and experience, feel the learning happening through hands on experience and comprehend through observations of multiple cases.

The best approach to being smart in your studies is to develop an approach for yourself one that reflects your goal and a personal reflection of what you would like to achieve from your studies.

All the best in your studies.

I love the excitement that comes with travelling to a new place. I always look forward to meeting new people, trying new food and experiencing their culture. One thing that I dread however is getting lost in a new place. In as much as it’s always fun narrating it later to friends, on the day of event, there is always little to smile about. Healthcare placements abroad are normally one of those times in the life of a medical student and premed students that one normally looks forward to. It is normally a great opportunity to spend around 2 to round 8 weeks working in a different hospital setting, discovering medicine in a different environment and interacting with a new culture. If you ask me, that sounds interesting! Plus the fact that you will be able to enjoy the beautiful sceneries and wild. But this comes after months of planning. Organizing for an international hospital work experience is not a walk in the park, especially when you are doing it alone. Apart from spending a lot of time working on the logistics, the bureaucratic maze that one needs to conquer in unfamiliar territory on a daily basis can be quite daunting if undertaking it alone and hence the need of working with a placement organizer like Elective Africa to organize your placement.

There are a number of placement organizers. Electives. Net provides a list of them from where you can choose from depending on your objectives and interests. Free advice, always ensure you have clearly defined your destination in terms of what you want to experience before approaching your placement organizer. That way, you are able to get your placement customized to suit your interest. That having been said, here are 3 Questions you need to ask your placement organizer before undertaking your placement abroad;

• What is the cost?
• Where will you be undertaking your placement?
• What will you be doing?
• What will be the Cost?

What will be the Cost?

Different organizer will provide different costing for organising your placement. The prices ranges and so does the package. It is therefore very important to inquire about the cost and what their package includes.  If they provide accommodation, which kind of accommodation do they provide? Is it a Hostel or homestay or apartments? It is also key to know how safe you accommodation location is. You can always request the placement advisor for an approximate budget that you will need to spend while on-ground. This is just to help you in the planning

Where will you be undertaking your placement?

Your placement organizer should be able to advise you on the best clinical site depending on your statement of objective. For instance if you have identify a department that you would want to rotate in, your organizer should find a perfect Clinical site that will allow you to get the best experience in terms of number of cases that you will witness. Elective Africa has identified different clinical sites depending on their specialties. One interested in Psychiatry will for instance go to Port Reitz Hospital in Mombasa for a specialty experience in psychiatry. Which type of destination will you prefer? Is it Coastal, urban or rural placement? This once identified makes it easier to know which clinical site you will be allocated

What will you be doing?

Hey, you haven’t travelled half across the world to come watch the ceiling of the hospital. Ask your organizer what your typical day in the hospital would like. This way you are able to know well in advance what to expect. Also find out on other activities you can be involved in when not in the hospital e.g volunteering and day excursions.

Have any questions on electives abroad in Kenya/Tanzania? Get in touch with us.

Regardless of where we live, our state of health depends on how health issues are managed around the world. So what role does a nurse have in all these?

All over the world, nurses make up the largest cadre among healthcare workers and have also the largest patient contact time.

As a student nurse you need to have basic competencies to meet the demands on patient care in a diverse society giving an emphasis on clinical training in multiple settings across the world.

Nursing elective abroad not only gives you an opportunity to connect with your peers from all over the world but also a chance to view your country’s healthcare system in a different perspective, considering you will be working with nurses and other healthcare professions in a hospital setting. Better still, you will have a chance to learn about different cultures by immersing yourself in a new culture.

“So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself “– Florence Nightingale

So why is Kenya a perfect destination for your Nursing Elective?

 Nurses in Kenya provide the bulk of direct patient care at all levels of health services delivery. Kenya has one doctor, 12 nurses and midwives per 10, 000 people. Crazy? Right? This is way below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of at least 23 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people. Doctors and nurses therefore have to become innovative to handle the huge number of patients turning up at the hospitals and work with the limited resources.

Working with nurses and other healthcare professionals you will gain a better understanding of different healthcare settings, policies and practices. With the huge patients turn outs and limited resources (both human and infrastructure) be ready to a busy day at the hospital.

A day in the life of a nurse in Kenya can hardly be described as ‘typical’ in comparison to traditional nursing roles in the developed world. While a rewarding profession, Nursing, and indeed other healthcare professionals in Kenya face significant challenges mainly due to the overwhelming demand for healthcare services amidst extremely limited resources - shortage of staff, supplies and equipment. For instance, nurse staffing in Kenya is a long way from the recommended 8 nurses per ward, and nursing ratio of 1 nurse for every 4 patients.

While in larger hospitals the role of the nurse may mirror the traditional nursing roles, in more remote and needier areas, nurses often perform work undertaken in other places only by physicians – consult, prescribe, anesthesia and admit patients.

So who can undertake our Nursing Electives Abroad Program?

The program is ideal for nursing students and Registered Nurses  seeking any of the following:

• A unique way to meet a nursing program clinical elective requirements
• An independent study abroad project
• An opportunity to integrate various theoretical concepts and knowledge in a clinical setting with substantial hands-on experience
• An opportunity to observe and practice delivery of nursing care based upon the goals of health restoration, maintenance and promotion
• A means to volunteer in underserved communities in both hospital settings and community based projects
• To experience healthcare in a developing world setting

Does the above describe you? Then this program is for you.

What to expect?

We customize the nursing electives and healthcare experience to the students seeking to improve their experiences in the following areas:

• A differentiated Healthcare System with unique conditions and educative nursing practices
• Professional mentorship and supervision to bridge gap between theory and practice of nursing
• Interactive Global Health Tutorials and continuous medical education system to understand more on global health.

Interested in taking the next steps, we offer guidance to you and help you plan an objective centred elective abroad. Reach out to speak with our senior placement advisors.  

Haven't applied yet? 

Follow these easy steps to get started!

Step 1: Apply on the website at www.electiveafrica.com/apply/

Step 2: Book your slot with USD 350 reservation deposit

Step 3: Submit program essential documents i.e. recommendation letter/ certificate of practice if graduated, resume and statement of objectives.

If you have any questions about our Healthcare Placements / Pre-Health Shadowing Internships Abroad, please don’t hesitate to email us at info@electiveafrica.com or give us a call at +1 609 375 8912. We’d love to help.