MEDICAL EDUCATION OVERVIEW

Hillside offers learning opportunities in a variety of settings and situations. The freestanding clinic meets the needs of local residents and villagers who leave their own homes as early as 3:30 AM on the market buses in order to come to Hillside. Additionally, mobile clinics are operated in coordination with the Belizean Ministry of Health twice a week into remote Garifuna, Creole and Mayan villages. A growing home visitation program in Southern Belize provides care to the homebound. Approximately seventy patients are visited in their homes each week. Finally, community education programs are offered for village healthcare workers and the community at large. Students/Residents participate in all of these components. Guidance for the education program is provided by the Stateside HHCI educational committee along with the Hillside physician, nurse administrator, and other clinic staff.

 

While at Hillside, the students/residents are exposed to a variety of cross cultural experiences as they work with the Maya, Garifuna, Creole, East Indian and other Belizean cultures. They learn to evaluate patients while working through language barriers and cultural differences. Confidence is gained in evaluation skills as participants are required to make diagnoses and treatment plans without the reassurance of diagnostic tools they may be accustomed to. Many participants report gaining a much greater awareness of the barriers to medical care that are incipient in impoverished communities as they participate in home visits in areas where 79% of the population is living below the poverty line. Most return home with a greater appreciation of the healthcare and basic living needs of the medically underserved in their own home countries.

 

Students/residents at Hillside participate in the program for a one month elective. During that time, they are involved in many aspects of the operation of the clinic as they work closely with the clinic medical and support staff. The clinic is closed on weekends so that students have the opportunity to take side trips in the unique Central American country of Belize or into neighboring Guatemala. Participants normally find that the month passes quickly as they take advantage of the learning and cultural opportunities.

 

All of the activities in which students/residents participate are aimed at improving the health status of the population served as well as establishing long term relationships with local health care providers and educators at all levels. Through these varied activities, participants will gain an appreciation of how medicine and health promotion are conducted in a developing environment, representing a large segment of the world’s population. Concurrently, participants will gain an understanding and appreciation of the unique cultures of Belize and of the unique medical conditions encountered in the tropics.