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29
COM Outlook . Summer 2012
My
Story:
Adventure
in
Australia
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are
pleased to have at Brook Medical Centre,
Belinda Edokpolo, a medical student
from Florida in the United States. She
will be observing us for the week. Please
be sure to say hello and don’t forget to
ask her about life in Florida.”
It was this brief announcement
by John Rogers, M.B.B.S., via the
intercom at Brook Medical Centre in
Muswellbrook in New South Wales,
Australia, that made me realize my
position. I found this announcement
comical at first because it sounded like
a celebrity salutation. But I soon real-
ized the implication of the announce-
ment as the doctors, nurses, patients,
and their families trickled in one af-
ter the other to welcome me to Brook
Medical and Australia. With each
handshake, I replayed the words
“visitor, medical student, and United
States” in my head. It dawned on
me that I was a medical ambassador,
and these were the words I should
act in accordance with.
In the spring of 2012, I had the
opportunity to visit Sydney and rural
Muswellbrook as part of an interna-
tional medical selective rotation that
allowed me to learn about the similari-
ties and differences between medical
care in Australia and the United States.
As a third-year medical student in the
United States, I was at a stage where
I was gaining exposure to multiple
clinical setting and sites. I had experi-
enced how patient care is approached,
particularly in metropolitan Miami-
Dade and Fort Lauderdale. I had ad-
mitted patients in the emergency room
under the guidance and supervision of
resident physicians and attendings at
my rotation sites, utilizing logical and
organized history and physical exami-
nations. It was from these experiences,
which have been embellished with
easily accessible medical technology,
that my curiosity to do an internation-
al observership was aroused.
Brook Medical Centre caters to the
15,000 inhabitants of Muswellbrook,
which is a town 151 miles from Syd-
ney that is home to eight coalmines,
the wine-grape industry, and horse
breeding. Based on this knowledge, I
was eager to immerse into the town’s
culture and medicine. My experience
at Brook was more than I had expect-
ed, as I was warmly received by Dr.
Rogers, the center’s managing partner.
First up was an initiation for medical
students in Australia. My seat was
right next to the practitioner facing
the patient. This I later learned is the
routine seating for medical students
in Australia. Being that close to the
practitioners facilitated our conversa-
tions about their health care system
that covered topics such as osteopath-
ic medicine, medical insurance, and
physician compensation.
Before going to Australia, I knew
it was a country where osteopathic
medicine as we know it here in the
United States has practice limitations.
During my osteopathic manipulative
medicine classes during my first two
By OMS-IV Belinda Edokpolo
International Outreach at NSU-COM
years at NSU-COM, I had learned
that
osteopaths
had different training
since they are primarily trained in
manipulative medicine and thus
had a scope of practice restricted to
manipulation or manual medicine.
Therefore, they are
osteopaths
and not
osteopathic physicians
who practice the
full scope of medicine and receive
additional training in manipulative
medicine. An American D.O. would
register in Australia as an
osteopath
,
with limitations in the practice of
medicine. Physicians at Brook Medical
Centre made me aware that these
limitations were still present, but they
were very receptive as I enlightened
them on the significant differences.
Although there were differences
in the way medical care was
delivered in Australia and the United
States, there were similarities as
well. One example is the utilization
of advancing medical technology in
the provision of health care in both
countries. Even though it was a rural
town, its medical center utilized as
much advancing medical technology
as I had experienced in Miami and
Fort Lauderdale. During my last day
at the center, as I took pictures with
the doctors and staff members, one of
the physicians stated, “Please take a
picture in front of our equipment so
you can show America that we have
the same tools.”
As everyone bid me farewell on the
last day of my observership, I thought
back to my first day when Dr. Rog-
ers made the announcement of my
arrival. Since their farewells were just
as genuine as they had welcomed me,
I was gratified. My time in Muswell-
brook learning about its health care
system and culture is an experience I
will cherish for the rest of my life.
Belinda Edokpolo enjoys a sightseeing tour
near the Sydney Opera House.