For the third consecutive year, a group of doctors, nurses and fourth-year students from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA are taking part in a 10-day medical mission to Jamaica, where they will treat hundreds of rural patients who might not otherwise get the kind of care that we are accustomed to in North America.
And this year the 19-member humanitarian mission is getting some much-needed help from Air Jamaica, which has generously offered “space available� seating to the group, which means that all the group pays is the tax for the flight to the Caribbean island. The group departs for Jamaica on Thursday night, April 15, from Los Angeles International Airport.
The mission, a joint effort with Dr. Bruno Lewin, clinical instructor at UCLA’s medical school and faculty member at the Kaiser Sunset Family Practice Residency Program, offers the medical students the opportunity to immerse themselves in another culture and experience the adaptation skills involved in being a minority in a foreign environment, said Dr. Ashley Christiani, chair of the medical school’s Primary Care College and co-organizer of the mission.
“The idea of an immersion experience is that student physicians gain a deeper understanding of another cultural or ethnic group which, when they return home, may engender an appreciation and inquisitiveness about their patients who come from different backgrounds — to consider the food they like, the way they dance, the love for their children, their stories,� she said. “It builds empathy.�
The experience also allows students to experience the challenges of providing high?quality care in a setting with limited resources,� she said.
And the mission’s members will face plenty of challenges. Among other things, they have had to procure all of the clinic’s medicine and supplies, arrange for medical licensure in Jamaica, and co-ordinate activities with the Jamaican health department and community sites.
“One of the goals of the Primary Care College is to get students excited about service?based learning where they give back to the community both here and abroad,� Christiani said. “Rather than rely on fancy tests and specialists, they must practice their art and clinical skills, and be resourceful.�
As it is, they’ve had to use their ingenuity just to get the mission off the ground, both figuratively and literally. For instance, the team has held fundraisers, raising $1,500 for medicines, and has received more than 12 boxes of donations of toys and clothing for the children they will be treating at the clinic, as well as a local orphanage and a girls’ shelter in Falmouth, Jamaica.
“People really came together to make this happen; we have all had to be creative, as there really is no budget for this,� she said. “Air Jamaica’s support was key.�
The students also have played leadership roles in bringing the mission together.
This will be the second mission for Sanjeev Sriram, a student who in July starts his residency in pediatrics at UCLA and who was one of the organizers for this year’s effort. Sriram’s DVD documenting last year’s clinic was used to demonstrate the activities of the mission to the Dean’s Office, and for fundraising and recruitment for this year.
Walter Coppenrath, who will be starting his family practice residency at Kaiser Sunset and is a former organizer of the UCLA Mobile Clinic, brought his expertise in developing medical forms to enable the group to maintain chart records for subsequent physician groups who rotate through the free clinic in Falmouth, and provide information on the health needs of the population to direct future efforts.
Many of the students participating in the mission also have worked with underserved and impoverished patients through their work at the UCLA student-run Homeless Clinics. But the experience in Jamaica will offer further insight into public health issues and the impact of culture on health beliefs. Each student has developed “culturally competent� health education materials that are geared toward Jamaicans. Diets for diabetics, for instance, are designed around traditional Jamaican cuisine.
The mission treats 500 to 700 patients each year in parishes throughout the island, including work at an annual health fair in Nine Miles, put on in conjunction with the Bob Marley Group of Companies, Christiani said.
In prior years the mission was a strictly voluntary one offered by the Primary Care College to its students. But it’s been so successful that, beginning this year, the school of medicine has accepted the mission as a fourth-year elective, allowing medical students to earn two weeks of clinical credit, she said.
“It’s wonderful that it has been validated by the Dean’s Office as a unique educational opportunity for the students,� she said.