General Impression
Overall Rating: / 10
I am recently back home to Portugal from my volunteer internship in Nepal, a Medical Internship. As so, I am now ready to write a few words about my volunteer experience. When I arrived to Nepal, Kathmandu, I was really exhausted about the 7h plus 5h of plains. However, Keshab was wanting for us at the airport with that big smile in his face. He is an incredible person. He took us to the hostel that we were going to stay the night before we go to Pokhara. He informed us about all the work himself and what the other volunteers had been doing and gave us important tips to our journey. On the next day we were received by Manoj and Keshab that leave us at the bus station to Pokhara. Manoj is also a very nice person who was always available for any question. The travel form Kathmandu to Pokhara was in the 7hr bus ride.Once we had arrived in Pokhara we then caught a taxi to the host family's house. Narendra and Shanta are the honors of the house and our host family for the next two weeks. Meeting them was amazing: two very nice persons that receive us very well. The house is simple, but clean and comfortable. The food is the typical: the Dal Bhat dish almost everyday. A few days and we are used to that spicy and same dish almost everyday in the host family's house, and already missing that! In the next day we went to the Hospital.I had the opportunity to meet other volunteers too and change experiences with them. As well as, explore the city: Pokhara is a magic place and the energy and the way of be of the nepalis are really difficult to describe in words if you don't feel it. Their gratitude and hospitality is unforgettable...
Overall, my time in Nepal was amazing and I will remember that, for sure... as a medical student, but above all, as a person.
Country
Nepal is an amazing country. The energy, the spiritualism, the sympathy, the faith and the happiness is difficult to describe in words, unless you have the opportunity to feel it...
Project & Staff
This hospital is a private hospital, which had pros and cons. We were received by the Professor Dr Rabeendra who is a very intelligent and friendly orthopedic surgeon and also the director of the hospital. He make sure that we are comfortable and enjoying our experience as mush as we could. All the doctors and nurses of the hospital were very friendly and nice to us. I could follow their work and learn many things, not only in the ER, but also observing a lot of surgeries. However, my first idea was that I would be able to help there, even if it would be a small one... and I quickly realize that they don't actually need a lot of help: firstly, because they are a private hospital, not busy at all... very calm the majority of the days. And secondly, because since it is not so busy and they have the most important facilities, they don't need properly help. But I had the opportunity to learn: about other language, country, culture and, above all, as a medical student, about medicine. If you go there with that in your mind you will be okay! I had some challenges to overcome too: one of them was the language. In the hospital, as a doctor or a medical student, you want to speak with the patients... and that was not possible because they can't speak in english. As so, I was always dependent from the doctor or the nurses to translate what was going on to me... which, sometimes, is not so easy to manage. I had the luck to go with Professor Rabeendra to a Teaching Hospital and the College one of the days and it was an amazing experience: there is a huge difference between the teaching hospital and the private one in terms of quantity of work and conditions...All the doctors and nurses of the hospital were very friendly and nice to us. I could follow their work and learn many things, not only in the ER but also observing a lot of surgeries. But in this project no one in specific is wanting fo us to arrive. So, as you arrive we have to ask the doctors and nurses if you can follow them and introduce yourself.
My first idea was that I would be able to help there, even it would be a small one...: that is what 'volunteer internship meant to me. However, I quickly realize that they don't actually need a lot of help: firstly, because they are a private hospital, not busy at all... very calm the majority of the days. The doctors have their consultations mostly at the end of the day, after their practice in the public hospital. As well as he surgeries are performed at the end of the day, due to the same reason. And secondly, because since it is not so busy and they have the most important facilities, they don't need properly help. But I had the opportunity to learn, thats for sure, as a medical student: about other language, country, culture and, above all, about medicine. If you go there with that in your mind you will be okay! I had some challenges to overcome too: one of them was the language. In the hospital, as a doctor or a medical student, you want to speak with the patients... and that was not possible because they can't speak in english. As so, I was always dependent from the doctor or the nurses to translate what is going on to me... which, sometimes, is not so easy to manage. I had the luck to go with Professor Rabeendra to a Teaching Hospital and the College one of the days and it was an amazing experience: it is a huge difference between the teaching hospital and the private one in terms of quantity of work and conditions... and it was very nice to meet different realities in the same city, too.
My first idea was that I would be able to help there, even it would be a small one...: that is what 'volunteer internship meant to me. However, I quickly realize that they don't actually need a lot of help: firstly, because they are a private hospital, not busy at all... very calm the majority of the days. The doctors have their consultations mostly at the end of the day, after their practice in the public hospital. As well as he surgeries are performed at the end of the day, due to the same reason. And secondly, because since it is not so busy and they have the most important facilities, they don't need properly help. But I had the opportunity to learn, thats for sure, as a medical student: about other language, country, culture and, above all, about medicine. If you go there with that in your mind you will be okay! I had some challenges to overcome too: one of them was the language. In the hospital, as a doctor or a medical student, you want to speak with the patients... and that was not possible because they can't speak in english. As so, I was always dependent from the doctor or the nurses to translate what is going on to me... which, sometimes, is not so easy to manage. I had the luck to go with Professor Rabeendra to a Teaching Hospital and the College one of the days and it was an amazing experience: it is a huge difference between the teaching hospital and the private one in terms of quantity of work and conditions... and it was very nice to meet different realities in the same city, too.
Tips
Above all, if you are going to a Medical Internship, keep in your mind that you are not going to really help. You are going to learn. If you are okay with this, this is an internship that could be amazing for you.