Medical students want to complete internship in Cuba

May 17, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Upon the release of Cuban scholarship application forms in 2005, more than 300 persons applied for the field of Medicine in which there were only 20 openings.
As any competitive process would have it, the chaff was separated from the wheat, the cream struggled to rise to the top and after a meticulous selection process many qualified applicants left with long faces.
The 19 hand-picked, lacquered and polished candidates left the homeland with great pride and enthusiasm to meet the expectations of their families, friends and nation.
We have since toiled for excellence and have achieved like no other previous group sent to Cuba. Our meritocracy is undoubtedly one to make any nation proud.
This 6th and final year of our medical training marks the termination of an academic cycle that should not be altered and much less discontinued in an unacquainted medium.
However, we feel powerless with both hands tied and against the wall since our government desires the completion of our internship in Guyana.
The consolidation of our clinical and surgical rotations should be with familiar yet variety of professors, tutors and medical auxiliary staff.
There is no debate that the iota of Cuban specialists in Guyana cannot compare to the multiplicity of professionals, specialised centres and technology in the Cuban hospitals that are at our everyday disposal for academic purposes.
The daily as well as the uncommon scope of illnesses seen by a 3rd year Medical Student (MS) in Cuba needs to be revisited by the now more knowledgeable, confident and hands-on 6th year MS in Cuba!
Doubts accumulated from these rotations can only be evacuated once there is consistency in the academic learning process with all the resources that permits the fortification and permanent branding of ideas.
Need we mention that the Cuban professor in Cuba is by far not the same professor in Guyana?
In Cuba, the formation of textbook and impeccable health care professionals are priority number one, but in Guyana the discovery of an assortment of bovine-based products, the internet and the skeleton key of freedom takes preeminence over a decent lecture or consult.
Spanish has been our bread and butter in and out of the hospital for the last six years. Our endeavour in the preparatory year was to dominate this language for the benefit of our basic survival and later medical training.
Directed patient interrogation establishes 90% of any clinical diagnosis, the abrupt change of languages will undoubtedly leave us speechless and purely frustrated when interacting with our Guyanese patients.
Explanation of illnesses and the best course of treatment in English, a language in which we have very little practical medical experience, will dispraise our title and future as medical professionals.
This may seem advantageous to some, but need we remind you that our frequent evaluations and medical licensing exam are all in Spanish.
This potpourri of tongues is a scrimmage for the already exhausted and tense MS, please help us deal with one challenge at a time and so excel at improving the health of our nation.
Our physical presence back in Oh Beautiful Guyana will be a world of distraction.
Sailing the emotional waves of familial reunification and social obligations with old (and new) friends are not conducive to cementing the final year of one’s medical career.
As the imperfect human beings that we all are, settling unresolved conflicts, making first impressions and “picking up from where we left off” implicitly creates an upward assault on the much needed and scarcely existent study time.
The consolidation of our academic foundation for the long but productive road that lies ahead is in by no way in agreement of this malevolent hindrance.
We have been six years without having to babysit our new niece, carrying little sister to CXC lessons or shopping, cooking and serving dinner to the family because mommy and daddy have an important meeting with the boss.
Boldly we can say that sacrificing one more year of family time for proper professional formation is not at all selfish, since one: having no medical licence is a shadow that will follow us around even after the sun freezes over and two, our contractual return to Guyana was established to be in July 2012, hence no family nor personal expectations will be crumpled.
How about the upcoming General Elections and the onus it places on the regular Tom John, much less on 19 politically scorched medical students?
We are not just referring to Socialist Cuba and all its trimmings, but to the incongruous nature and regular breeching of contractual agreements by our government.
We are appreciative for the increase in stipend and the regular and refreshing visits from our new Ambassador but what we really need is consistency in our academic formation.
Chucking us into the war zone may not be of as much benefit to a final year MS (a war zone in itself) as it would be to the Orthopedic or Surgical resident.
Political instability and a hostile environment are not components of a healthy learning environment, classes will be missed, stress levels will be higher than normal and the results of this stellar group will burn out like a nova.
Please have some compassion and see our point of view.
Numbers never lie! Here’s an outrageous idea: poll past Cuban bred MS, especially the ones who have burnt the midnight oil and have fought tirelessly for their dream. Inquire what would have been their choice location for internship and where would they have better amalgamated their years of medical training to climax explosively and outstandingly?
Are we adults or slaves? Haven’t we the right to at least an opinion with respect to our future, or was that nullified after making our mark on PSM paper with government ink? We defy any government official reading this letter to do an anonymous questionnaire and be prepared to be mind-boggled. Speaking of numbers, is it at all economical to start a whole internship programme for just 19 students, wherein more than 10 of the same belong to regions out of Georgetown?
Will the stipend be sufficient for lodging, meals, transportation, the inevitable financial assistance in the home and recreation?
The academic capacity of the rural MS will be less given the hours of travel to the city and hassle of finding amenities. What about the unnecessary toll upon the backs of our families? From day one, we have been conditioned to return as working professionals earning a salary that edifies and relieves the household load.
This scholarship was granted to aid the poor man until the end of his professional formation and specifically to prevent the strain that such a course places on the already worn out and perforated pockets of his family.
Again, the testimony of past interns located both in and out of Georgetown serves as a point of reference for what seems as an inevitable load. Please, try to see eye to eye with us.
Unequivocally Cuba is the better choice for buttressing this splendid career choice for the good of all that stand to benefit in the future. We have trusted the government with our lives; now please grant us this only petition to edify and improve our homeland, by reaching the paramount of our abilities, one that can only be attained by completing the academic cycle in Cuba.
Anonymous MS

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