{"id":3365,"date":"2019-01-07T22:42:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T22:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=3365"},"modified":"2023-05-24T14:24:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T21:24:56","slug":"medicine-and-public-health-come-together-in-ecuador-internship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2019\/01\/07\/medicine-and-public-health-come-together-in-ecuador-internship\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicine and public health come together in Ecuador internship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on Synergies<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

An internship could be located just 10\u00a0minutes from campus,\u00a0but\u00a0Emily Burney would rather travel to the equator, some 4,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

As a wide-eyed high school senior, Emily learned about international internships while on a tour of Oregon State\u2019s campus. She was intrigued,\u00a0and four years later\u00a0she\u00a0made\u00a0her international\u00a0dream a reality with an internship in Ecuador.<\/p>\n

Emily is an Honors College student studying public health, with an option in health management and policy. She\u2019s also thrown two minors into the mix \u2014 one in business and entrepreneurship, and one in chemistry.<\/p>\n

To say she\u2019s up for a challenge is an understatement.<\/p>\n

Why did you want to do your\u00a0required\u00a0internship abroad?<\/h4>\n

\u201cI chose to complete my internship abroad because I\u2019m passionate about global health, and I wanted to challenge myself to learn about and work in a culture and health system that\u2019s different from the\u00a0U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also on the pre-medical path, so having the opportunity to combine public health work with clinical exposure through my particular internship program really interested me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived in South America previously, and I wanted to return to the region as well as improve my Spanish skills through my internship. I had actually learned about a very similar program when I was a senior in high school, visiting Oregon State as a prospective student. I thought it sounded interesting at the time, and when I had the opportunity to pursue it as a current student\u00a0\u2014\u00a0almost four years after first hearing about it\u00a0\u2014\u00a0I jumped at the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where did your internship take you?<\/h4>\n

\u201cI was in Ecuador for 10 weeks,\u00a0spending\u00a0five weeks in\u00a0two different cities.\u00a0I was in Guayaquil, which is the largest city in Ecuador, and\u00a0Puyo, a small rural town in the Amazon jungle. These two cities are incredibly different from each other, and each offered\u00a0a\u00a0unique view of public health and medicine in Ecuador.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was\u00a0<\/b>your international internship\u00a0<\/b>affiliated with\u00a0<\/b>a<\/b>\u00a0specific program?<\/b><\/h4>\n

\u201cMy internship was with\u00a0Child Family Health International<\/a>, which runs programs around the world for students and professionals of all levels who are interested in health. In order to apply to the\u00a0program, I worked with the internship advisor for public health and the IE3 office in OSU\u2019s\u00a0Office of Global Opportunities<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

What were you doing\u00a0in Ecuador?<\/h4>\n

\u201cI worked in several urban and rural community clinics, where I learned about public health and the Ecuadorian health care system from doctors and other clinic personnel. In these clinics, I was able to help run community vaccination programs, work with the elderly and improve health literacy among low-income families. I also worked with a vector control program with the Ministry of Public Health and assisted with a long-term epidemiological survey focused on preventing mosquito-borne diseases in the community, especially among low-income pregnant women.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Emily worked alongside staff members at a clinic she interned at in Guayaquil, Ecuador.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI also\u00a0worked in the\u00a0Puyo\u00a0General Hospital on a variety of health management and education projects. While working in the hospital, I was part of a multidisciplinary\u00a0integrated HIV\/AIDS\u00a0team, working with hospital records and national databases to identify characteristics of patients who had left treatment for HIV\/AIDS in order to improve treatment processes and disease management protocols. I also observed multiple surgeries, learned about the hospital\u2019s clinical practices and collaborated with nurses to develop patient education procedures and materials for diseases such as diabetes and tuberculosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was it like\u00a0interning\u00a0at the\u00a0Puyo\u00a0General Hospital?<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe structure of my internship meant I was working side-by-side with local physicians every day.\u00a0This meant\u00a0I\u00a0was learning\u00a0about the realities of the Ecuadorian health care system\u00a0as they provided care within a public health sphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to assist the physicians as I worked in the local community clinics, and I was also able to observe their interactions with patients and their steps toward diagnosis and treatment. When I was in rural clinics this process was especially interesting, as physicians and clinical staff had to work with challenges common to rural areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cPuyo is a small town in a rural area, so medicine there, especially as performed by the primary care physicians I worked with, actually involved a lot of preventive public health work. For example, some families wouldn\u2019t bring their children in to get vaccinated, so clinic staff visited\u00a0families who lived in very rural areas in the jungle, educating parents on the importance of vaccinating their children and then providing vaccinations on the spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also went with physicians and clinic staff as they visited pregnant women in the area. I\u00a0then participated in the health data tracking \u2014 essentially field epidemiology \u2014 they performed for the entire area on the health outcomes for mothers and babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the most interesting experience you had\u00a0at the hospital?<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe most interesting experience I had was a very eye-opening one, in which I worked with one of the head nurses at the Puyo General Hospital to organize housing and a treatment plan for a patient. This patient was a 17-year-old mother who had arrived at the hospital with an active tuberculosis infection, AIDS\u00a0and a young child who had been born with HIV.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer family had shunned her because of stigma associated with her AIDS diagnosis, leaving her in\u00a0Puyo\u00a0with no money and no support. We prepared\u00a0housing for this patient and her daughter, arranged\u00a0support\u00a0and developed\u00a0a long-term treatment plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis young woman and her daughter had many obstacles, but seeing the dedication and support of the nurse is something I\u2019ll never forget. Her selflessness and service to her patients is something I aim to live up to as a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you learn anything unexpected<\/b>?<\/b><\/h4>\n

\u201cI spent about a week learning about indigenous culture and traditions from members of the Quechua San Virgilio community, which is about\u00a0a\u00a0two-hour drive into the jungle outside of\u00a0Puyo. I learned about medicinal plants and healing practices, as well as how the San Virgilio community works with the Ecuadorian government to maintain their culture and way of life in Ecuador\u2019s\u00a0plurinational\u00a0society.”<\/p>\n

[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#ffffff” text=”#d73f09″ width=”content” height=”auto” align=”center” size=”10″ quote=”\u201cLearning from the San Virgilio community reinforced my understanding of how public health permeates every part of life, and how it can empower everyone to live healthy and happy lives as they wish to, through respecting and celebrating differences among peoples.\u201d” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]<\/p>\n

Was your internship\u00a0aligned with what\u00a0you want to do in the future?<\/h4>\n

\u201cI plan to apply to medical school\u00a0after I graduate in December,\u00a0and\u00a0I\u00a0aim to become a primary care doctor. I hope to work in global health to improve others\u2019 health and well-being through public health initiatives that remove systemic barriers to care.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy internship experience was definitely aligned with my future goals, since it combined public health work and clinical medicine. I was able to work with a range of populations and cultures, and learned from many diverse viewpoints about health and medicine.<\/p>\n

[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#ffffff” text=”#d73f09″ width=”content” height=”auto” align=”center” size=”10″ quote=”\u201cThrough my internship, I decided how I plan to serve patients, and I learned much more about the opportunities for public health and medicine to change lives in the future.\u201d” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]<\/p>\n

What advice do you have for other students considering an\u00a0international\u00a0internship?<\/h4>\n

\u201cI highly recommend an international internship! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think having a global perspective is immensely important. It takes a little bit of planning and preparation, but by starting early and working with the advising teams it\u2019s definitely achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s back up. What led you to\u00a0major in\u00a0public health?<\/h4>\n

\u201cI originally didn\u2019t know what I wanted to study, as I was interested in everything when I first started\u00a0at\u00a0Oregon State\u00a0in 2014. At this point in time the\u00a0Affordable Care Act\u00a0was going into effect, and I was\u00a0intrigued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was interested in health and medicine, so I took a class\u00a0called\u00a0Social and Individual Health\u00a0Determinants.\u00a0I\u00a0had never heard of public health before, but learning about the myriad of ways in which public\u00a0health work impacts our lives made me want to learn more, so I could work to make others\u2019 lives better in the future.”<\/p>\n

[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#ffffff” text=”#d73f09″ width=”content” height=”auto” align=”center” size=”10″ quote=”\u201cI believe public health gives me a great way to approach medicine, as I am able to understand health and health determinants at a macro and a micro level.\u201d” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]<\/p>\n

We hear you\u2019re an\u00a0Honors student as well. Has this enhanced your college experience?<\/h4>\n

\u201cThrough the\u00a0Honors College<\/a>, I\u2019ve been able to dive into subjects and explore fields that aren\u2019t included in my program of study, but still add to my understanding of the world and enable me to develop new interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my freshman year, I went to Ethiopia through the Honors\u00a0College\u00a0thanks\u00a0to a class about international service. I became further motivated to work in global health after seeing what I\u00a0had\u00a0learned about in my classes firsthand, and it challenged me to further develop my understanding of international service, as well as my place in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have also grown academically because of the Honors College through my work on my thesis in the\u00a0Translational Metabolism Research Laboratory<\/a>, which enabled me to work with extremely smart and talented individuals. Thanks to\u00a0Matthew Robinson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sean Newsom<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the directors of the lab and two of my thesis mentors\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as well as every other member of the lab, I learned laboratory techniques and scientific practices, and I gained an understanding of high-level scientific work. Because of my experiences in the lab, I know I am better prepared to move into the next stages of my academic career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

By Hannah Knowles: Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications, College of Public Health and Human Sciences<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on Synergies. An internship could be located just 10\u00a0minutes from campus,\u00a0but\u00a0Emily Burney would rather travel to the equator, some 4,000 miles away. As a wide-eyed high school senior, Emily learned about international internships while on a tour of Oregon State\u2019s campus. She was intrigued,\u00a0and four years later\u00a0she\u00a0made\u00a0her international\u00a0dream a reality with an internship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9319,"featured_media":7438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,1306],"tags":[17,204545,835,523,911,1046],"class_list":["post-3365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-student","tag-ecuador","tag-honors-experience","tag-internship","tag-research","tag-students","tag-study-abroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3365"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8793,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3365\/revisions\/8793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}