Friday. Exhausted. Feel like I have been hit by a ton of bricks. The heat is oppressive here. I don’t remember it ever being this hot. Maybe it feels hotter because I know that I am missing the amazing snowstorms back home. I am a bit homesick today.
Finished our first week at the IDI with an examination, truly my last medical school exam:) The work is not as clinical as I had hoped, but I still think it has been a valuable week. For most of the week, we sat stuffed into a small examination room with four Ugandan medical students learning the principles of ART treatment. It was a crash course in ARV drugs, side effects, and management of side effects. Yesterday, our instructor (whom I shall call Dr. Sublime Steven) saw patients and taught us at the same time. The physician-patient interaction is very different here and sometimes it was as if the patient was invisible. We discussed the patient’s case–personal details of the patient’s life and then we switched to a discussion of specific ART drugs and then we switched to talking about religion (yes, Jake was clearly present)……all of this while the patient sat quietly in the corner. Once again, the patient interviews were cursory and cold. It was upsetting. Although the week was composed of primarily didactic sessions, I did find it to be a valuable learning experience. After the exam today, the Ugandan medical students had to present cases from home visits with patients from the IDI clinic. I was quite impressed by the emphasis on the psychosocial and environmental determinants of health among HIV patients that were presented. The case presentations certainly highlighted the impact of poverty on HIV treatment in Kampala.
Need to head to dinner now…..Big day tomorrow–heading to Murchison Falls for a unique Valentine’s Day weekend…Have much more to say about our first week…stay tuned. No internet until Monday.
Globe Napper 