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Collete Snoek
In the beginning of this year I’d finished the theoretical part of my study. I had 7 months to go before my clinicals would start and so I decided I wanted to travel. Still I had to do an internship/research as a part of my study. I combined my internship/research and my wish to travel so I went in April to Cape Town, South Africa. It is optional to do the internship/research abroad. In the Groote Schuur hospital (GSH), the hospital where the first hart transplantation in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard was done, I did my research on behalf of The Female Cancer Program. It was about cervical cancer among HIV positive women and HIV negative women. Beside doing my research, my supervisor took me too operations in the GSH and a private clinic. It was a great experience to see the differences between government subsidized hospitals and private clinics. An other gynaecologist took me too the colposcopy department. She taught me how to examine patients and how to take Pap smears, things I’d never done before.In the GSH I met a few medical students, also Dutch exchange students. They told me about a mobile clinic where medical students examine and help real patients. So I decided to go with them to see how things were going there. The students have the ability to go Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night too the mobile clinic. There was one doctor who supervised. We met at the medical school and a bus took us too a township. Two mobile clinics were already standing there. Each one had four “rooms” to examine the patients. I went with a 6th year medical student. The problems of the patients were of all kind. After five hours and a lot of patients we went back with the bus. This was also a great experience. I learned a lot about how the medical study works in South Africa. It is interesting to notice the differences between studying medicine in South Africa and Holland. From the practical work I learned the most. You learn how to deal with patients and being a good doctor. I’m really glad I got the opportunity to do my internship/research in Cape Town!