The summer between my first and second year of medical school is the only one where I get a long break (2.5 months). A lot of people choose to do some sort of internship or fellowship to fill the time and I am no different. I don't really need it to pad my resume as I don't plan on going into a competitive residency (family medicine is really under-represented by US graduates but that is a post for another time), but I don't want to spend my time just sitting on my butt at home. A year of medical school doesn't qualify me to do a whole lot but it will be nice to do something where I will be getting some patient contact!
Since I don't get any loan money over the summer I have had to look for opportunities that pay interns and I was lucky enough to find quite a few! If I don't end up getting accepted into any of those programs I will spend my time volunteering somewhere but for now I am putting a lot of effort into my applications.
There are a few local hospitals that let students shadow doctors in a variety of specialties. The pay varies from $150-300 per week and programs vary from 1-8 weeks. The programs are competitive but give preference to students from local schools. My top choice is for the hospital that is right down the street from where hubby and I live. I would get to do two 3 week programs. One in family medicine and one in internal medicine. My plan is to save part of my money from the program and go volunteer in Haiti for an additional 3 weeks of my summer (my dad is a missionary there please check out his work at sevendollarbills.com). This choice would be my number one way to spend my summer and I have already sent in the application in hopes that being so early will up my chances of being accepted! I would get to shadow in the specialty I am most interested and get to spend time with both my husband and dad over the summer. Sounds good to me!
My close second plan would involve me being in Haiti for the whole summer (10 weeks). If I didn't have a husband this would probably be my number one plan, haha, but I do and I have to admit being away from him for 2.5 months would be really hard! Anyway, there is a foundation that offers grants to medical students doing research or service projects over the summer. You have to write a proposal of what you will be doing and then report on your project within four weeks of your return. For students doing international work they have to have mentors both at their school and in the country they are volunteering in. My plan is to write a proposal to work with the Baby Rescue Program at the orphanage where my dad is in Haiti (check out danitaschildren.org). I know while I am there I would do more than work with just the babies in this program but for the grant my project has to have a focus. I really wish I didn't have exams right now because the application is due March 1st and there is little chance of me getting it in early but I guess at least it won't be late. My dad was so helpful to find someone to be my mentor in Haiti and my adviser at school will help me find a doctor to be my mentor here once I finish my proposal. I can not even imagine how much a summer in Haiti would change my life and how many people I would be able to help!!
There are a couple other things I am applying to like a family physician shadowing program in Delaware and an internship at NIH but these are more "back-up" plans. I would do those for the times they are and then used the money I saved to do 3 or 4 weeks in Haiti at the end of the summer.
Guess the main thing is no matter what happens I want to spend at least 3 weeks in Haiti with my dad helping out at Danita's Children! It would be really nice to get the opportunity to shadow some doctors in the area here as well but I will just have to wait and see what programs accept me. Whatever happens I am looking forward to an awesome summer! I can not wait to be out there helping people as a student doctor. I may only know a little but I am well on my way to becoming the doctor I want to be!!
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