6
COM Outlook . Fall 2012
Intrigue
in
Argentina
and
Colombia
As a fourth-year medical student, you will
often hear a similar story of students travel-
ing across the country to audition for their
dream residency spots, living out of their cars,
perhaps on the sofa of a good friend, or strug-
gling to find decent roommates on craigslist.
The fortunate few are actually able to keep an
apartment and have some stability throughout
the year, but those are few and far between.
My dream residency wasn’t far—just a
little south of NSU in Coral Gables. But like
many students, I traveled by car, placed the
few things I did have of value in a storage
unit, and started my fourth year with determi-
nation and enthusiasm.
What was most unique about my fourth
year was the opportunity to study for three
months in South America. I placed the little
I had remaining in my rented-out studio
apartment in storage, along with my car, and
packed a backpack with not much more than
some scrubs, several dresses, my running
gear, and my stethoscope.
Some people would argue that there is
little to be learned from studying medicine
in a developing country, but I am here to tell
you that the lessons learned are priceless.
My first two months were spent in a small
region of Argentina called La Rioja doing my
core rural medicine rotations. I worked with a
colleague from NSU and three medical stu-
dents from a private medical school in La Rioja
named Fundacion de Barcelo while living in an
apartment provided by the university.
Our responsibilities were many. During the
day, we worked at a community health center
doing mainly pediatric well-child visits, vaccina-
tions, and wound care, while in the afternoon,
we went to class two times a week with the
medical students for pharmacology and clinical
case reviews. Every 15 days, we went to the
villages in the interior of La Rioja to provide
care. There are five routes that are visited
each 15 days to villages that are just starting
to receive electricity and running water. They
consist of not much more than a small health
center, police office, and school with popula-
tions ranging from 11 to 50.
With a stethoscope, your hands, and a
few medical supplies, we would set out to
see our patients. With so many resources
available in the United States, sometimes the
basics are forgotten, such as a good history
and physical exam. With these two tools, 80
percent of a diagnosis can be made.
My experience in Argentina was a return
to the basics of medicine, to those things I
learned in my first year of medical school. It
also served as a reminder that medicine is still
an art that is about the people we are called to
serve. Those two months of my fourth year re-
minded me of why I started this journey in the
first place. I often heard my Argentine attend-
ings and fellow colleagues talk about medicine
as a vocation, a calling. I could not describe
our wonderful profession in any other way.
After two intense months in Argentina,
you would think I would be ready to return
stateside, but that was not the case. I had yet
another month left to work in Bucaramanga in
one of the largest medical centers in eastern
Colombia. My experience in Colombia was
By Heidi Hagerott, D.O. (Class of 2012)
International Outreach at NSU-COM
much different than in Argentina. I found a
host family online that provided meals and
laundry and worked in the pediatric ER,
which had two patient rooms, eight beds for
observation, and two attendings. I worked
with three medical students from the Univer-
sidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, a private
medical school, and worked 12 hours a day,
6
days a week.
I was given a password for the electronic
medical records system and thrown into the
mix, just like everyone else. And I definitely
improved my Spanish. At the end of the
month, I was doing case presentations,
writing orders and notes, and admitting and
discharging patients. The medical students
functioned as interns in this hospital, so I
was expected to perform the same.
What impressed me most about this
hospital is that it had all of the modern
technology you would find in the United
States, but the physicians still focused
on the basics and ordered only the most
necessary of tests. It made me think twice
about the labs and imaging I wanted to
order. They always asked us how these
test results would change the management
and treatment of our patient. I felt my month
in Colombia pushed me to a new level, ready
to take on the challenges of residency with a
new confidence in my clinical skills.
After three months away from home and
being completely immersed in the Spanish lan-
guage, it was time to return to South Florida.
I walked away from those experiences as a
more caring, compassionate physician. I am
grateful to NSU for having given me the op-
portunity to travel and practice medicine in an
area of the world that interests me. These ex-
periences are what make us different because
they make us step outside of the box and look
at medicine from a different perspective.
INTERNATIONAL OMT:
Dr. Hagerott puts her osteopathic
training to good use.
