Medical Student Frustration

Well, we’ve been at the hospital for almost a week now, and things are not quite how we expected them to be. I think we came in to this experience with the expectation that we would be an invaluable addition to the hospital and would get to experience and participate more than we would in the US. We thought that I would be working mostly in Obstetrics and some Gynecology, and that Brent would be working in Internal Medicine and rounding in the hospital. And, we thought we’d be some of the only “extra hands” in the hospital.


Some of the above is definitely true. We have seen some amazing cases that we would be unlikely to see anywhere else. We round every morning on surgical patients and are very helpful in assisting with wound care and chart documentation while our attending hurries to see all 40 patients. I have seen several Gynecology cases already.

However, a lot is different. First of all, we have pretty much only been working on the surgical team. Dr. Jim Brown, the attending, is American and therefore speaks fluent English, and is extremely nice and welcoming. As Brent and I have attempted to branch out to other fields, we have not been very well received and have a difficult time explaining who we are and why we’re there due to the language barrier. Therefore, we’ve been feeling much more comfortable and welcome with the surgery team. Secondly, there are 5 other medical students besides us here at this very moment. Some are coming and going, and one has been sick with malaria, but 7 total students makes for a very crowded service. And we are still only students. We are working with an American attending and his residents (1-2 at a time), which leaves us in the “student” position, giving us very little, if any, autonomy. This also leaves us with a lot of time to sit around and do nothing, waiting for a moment to be useful. Finally, we are still in the mix of the competitiveness between medical students. We are all vying for the good surgeries, the future obstetricians all want the C-sections, and we all want to give off a good impression to our attending.

I know that this experience is unlike any other and that I am truly lucky to be here, yet some days it is frustrating that we can’t be more help. Dr. Brown needs more surgeons, more hands, and more time. He does everything by himself and is on call every day of the week. I only wish I could take some of the load off of him and truly give back. I find I am feeling the same as I have throughout the fourth year of medical school: I want to more and I feel I have the ability to do more, but I am not yet at the point in my training that I am allowed to do more. I suppose that is frustrating both in American and in Africa.

Courtney Steller