With the opportunity to study in a variety of specialties, St. Joseph’s/Candler welcomed four medical students from the University of Glasgow this summer to participate in the health system’s annual four-week elective program.
“I like education, I like students and they’re from Scotland,” said program medical director Dr. Les Wilkes, “and I love Scotland.”
The program, started by Wilkes and then-St. Joseph’s hospital administrator Sister Mary Faith, began in 1992 when one student came from University of Glasgow to spend a four-week elective period studying with and shadowing doctors at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
After experimenting with two, four and six students over the years, the now combined St. Joseph’s/Candler system accepts four students each July.
This year, students rotated in specialties of gastroenterology, ophthalmology, urology and internal medicine.
“The difference here is that the students are directly under the professor. We consider the preceptors our professors,” said Wilkes. “In Scotland, they have professors, but then they have residents and fellows to work with before you get to the med students.”
One of the program’s newest specialties is internal medicine with Chatham Hospitalists, the hospitalist provider to St. Joseph’s and Candler hospitals.
“It’s a growing practice. We see about 50 percent of the hospital patients,” said Dr. Colleen Taylor, who has been working with the students at Candler Hospital. “It’s certainly becoming the future of medicine, an evolving role that we find that we are doing more and more.”
A hospitalist’s practice is the hospital, a medical practice similar to those of most doctors in the United Kingdom.
“Doctors are in the hospitals as their work,” said University of Glasgow medical student Tom Aitken, “so I can really relate to hospitalists.”
Aitken, 22, is a fourth-year medical student and will graduate next year before he becomes a junior doctor in the National Health Service.
“I’ve learned a lot about the two health care systems,” he said. “I wanted to get a different a prospective of the health care systems.”
Taylor, who worked in socialized health systems in Ireland before working in the United States, said the differences between systems are evident when working with students.
“When I was trained in the European system,” said Taylor, “we didn’t have the luxury of radiology and equipment and were taught more critical skills…(American) students often rush to do a CT scan whereas I was taught to examine the patients.”
But, Aitken said, it is impressive to see how quickly patients can receive diagnostic tests or surgeries.
He also said he has learned that people in the states are active in their health care.
“People here seem to be more informed about their health because they realize the costs involved,” he said. “Given the financial costs of things, patients are more likely to consult heavily with the doctor.”
For University of Glasgow medical student Kevin Duncan, open discussion with doctors has helped better his understanding of the health care systems.
“Our supervisors that we’ve had, we’ve had discussion about the two different systems,” Duncan said. “It affords us a greater understanding of how we view health care in terms of the health care in each system.”
He and Aitken said the program has given them the opportunity to focus on specialty care.
“It’s a unique experience viewing this specialty,” Duncan said. “I’ll be able to go back to UK and understand what happens in these specialties.”
“In school,” said Aitken, “there’s not much training in things like ophthalmology.”
Aitken said he has received training that will be useful in more than just the four specialties.
“This has helped me understand the importance of the doctor-patient relationship because patients are very involved in their care,” he said. “I think that is something I will take with me.”
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
St. Joseph’s/Candler maintains an affiliation agreement with the University of Glasgow medical school and offers a four-week rotating study during the school’s four-week elective period in the month of July.
Four students learn through observation and interaction with physicians and study similarities and differences between the health systems of the United Kingdom and United States, on the rotating schedule with four different physicians.
In 1999, Savannah’s St. Andrew’s Society began offering a scholarship to cover transportation costs for one qualified student each year who could not otherwise attend the program.