In December, Hélène, Manon and Gwendolyn, three medical students at UCLouvain, completed a placement in Cambodia at one of our partner hospitals. One of them reflects on this human and medical experience.
"My name is Hélène, and I'm in my sixth year of medicine at UCLouvain. As part of our final year placements, we had the opportunity to go abroad to discover a different culture and healthcare system. I did my placement in the paediatrics department of a public hospital in Kampong Cham, Cambodia. There were several things that stood out during those six weeks. First of all, the notion of sterility is not the same as it is here: we're used to a lot of single-use materials, which, over there, have several lives. Hygiene is also on a different level. It explains the higher rate of infections, resulting in excessive use of prophylactic antibiotics.
Learning to adapt
Access to complementary examinations is also limited, available only in certain towns or neighbouring countries. I had to adapt my medical thinking to take account of the country's limited resources. My future practice will certainly be marked by this experience, but I would like to keep the best of it and learn from their system. For example, the family is very much involved in treatment and medical thinking: they are an important member of the medical team. The team spirit between nurses and doctors was also very pleasant. It improves care and makes the atmosphere much lighter. I feel lucky to have had this experience, to have been able to appreciate the differences, the weaknesses and the strengths of each country. It was a very formative experience in human terms. It pushed me to push my limits every day and confronted me with new and certainly unique situations. The Cambodian people are some of the most smiling people I've ever met; they're very welcoming and always have a smile on their face, no matter what the situation."