Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Imagine walking into a hospital where the floors are made of dirt and cement and walls stand completely blank. Patients are sandwiched together on their hospital beds and the medical equipment is dated and broken. Around the corner a sick man lays in an isolation room, separated by screened walls meant to isolate his disease.
This image was real for Kristen Powell, who is part of a growing number of pharmacy students who are choosing to complete their degree requirements abroad.
Powell, Topeka graduate student, spent last October in Roatan, Honduras, filling prescriptions at the Clinica Esperanza, “Clinic of Hope.” Powell spent one month working as a pharmacist at Clinica Esperanza to complete one of her nine pharmacy rotations. While the conditions at the clinic were better than those at the local hospital, Powell said health care in Roatan was incredibly poor.
“You know places like that exist, but you don’t want to believe it,” she said.
James Kleoppel, clinical assistant professor in the department of pharmacy practice, said that while pharmacy students had been completing rotations abroad for years, he had seen an increase in interest. Students are required to complete nine rotations, and the School of Pharmacy offered rotation opportunities in partnership with the Office of Study Abroad in countries including Australia, Peru, Scotland and the Netherlands.
Tian Yaw, right, studies pharmacy and worked in the Netherlands last year to complete her required rotations. Yaw said she went to the Netherlands to observe socialized health care.
“It’s more than an education — it’s getting involved in the culture,” Kleoppel said.
“I really wanted to bring my knowledge of pharmacy to a different part of the world and to be able to have diverse learning experiences as part of my pharmacy education career,” Tian Yaw, Malaysia senior in pharmacy, said. Yaw spent September 2008 in the Netherlands.
“My experience in the Netherlands alleviated some of my worries that pharmacy is drastically different across the globe,” she said.
Yaw said she chose to study in the Netherlands because she wanted to observe socialized health care. She said everyone in the Netherlands had access to health care, but that the coverage of specific medications was limited.
Powell said she took away a very deep appreciation for the United States’ health care system. “The situation made me broken-hearted to how greedy we have become in the U.S., where so many people have lost sight of how fortunate they are.”
Powell said the experience also solidified her desire to work in an impoverished country when she graduated.
Mark Stanfield, New Concord, Ohio, senior in pharmacy, said going abroad to Scotland influenced his career aspirations. During his month-long rotation in August 2008, he observed pharmacists working personally with their patients. He said pharmacists in Scotland were able to help diagnose their patients, much like physicians.
“There is no perfect system, but I think theirs works better,” he said.
Stanfield said the health care he observed provided everyone with quality services.
“They’re not into profiting from illness,” Stanfield said.
Stanfield said he was the first KU student to study pharmacy in Scotland and that the School of Pharmacy helped him arrange his rotation. Stanfield planned the majority of his experience with his own funds.
Stanfield said traveling to Scotland was one of the best experiences of his life. He said his passion for helping people only grew.
“It’s rewarding to find this passion because I’ll be doing it for the rest of my life.”
— — Edited by Casey Miles
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