Story by Tom Blanks and Will Kerss (Visiting medical students from Nottingham Medical School, England)

We are Tom Blanks and Will Kerss, two recently qualified doctors from Nottingham Medical School, England. We are given a 9 week elective period following completion of our final exams. We heard good reviews from other English medical students about the hospital and decided to travel to Goroka General.

Having arrived at Goroka airport from England after a long series of flights, we were immediately taken under the wing of two residents and one registrar, who took it upon themselves to get us sorted out with accomodation in a local hostel.

On our first day at the hospital itself; the DMS, Dr. Frank, took us on a tour of the hospital and allowed us to familiarise ourselves with the layout and grounds of the site. We were allowed to set our own itinaries, splitting our time between Internal Medicine, Surgery and Paediatrics.

Will began on Internal Medicine being thrown in at the deep end by joining on a ward round.  Each day the ward rounds continued until lunchtime and were followed by ward work in the afternoons.  the doctors were incredibly keen to get me involved with procedures which spanned from placing nasogastric tubes, to performing pleural and abdominal taps as well as lumbar puntures solo.  This  improved my skill set as back in England doing such procedures at our stage of training would not be possible.  I was also exposed to illneses such as Typhoid, TB and malaria, all of which are very rare in the UK and hence broadened my knowledge of such pathologies.  After medicine I spent some time on the surgical ward and was able to assist during theatre, and perform incisions and suturing during the minor operations.

Tom began on Surgery and from the first ward round onwards noticed the massive difference in pathologies from the UK. On this ward round I was exposed to abdominal TB, neurofibromatosis and typhoid perforations; conditions unheard of in the UK and as such fascinating. One of the most impressive aspects of the ward-work was the ability of the residents to adapt their techniques and skills to fit any situation and get a job done despite setbacks. My time spent in theatre was equally impressive, with residents at our stage performing single-handed appendicetomies, abscess drainages and suturing; tasks performed by much higher grades back in the UK. I was allowed to take a very active part in both ward work and theatre; from suturing to plastering. I then moved to Medicine; and was thrown straight into performing lumbar punctures amidst a vast array of TB presentations; again a extremely interesting experience. My final attachment was in Paediatrics, where again I was allowed to perform venepuncture, cannulation and lumbar punctures; vastly broadening my practical skills and clinical experience.

Both of us would like to thank all of the residents, registrars, nurses and consultants that made our stay such an incredibly interesting and enjoyable experience. We both had a fantastic time and return to the UK with a far wider understanding of medical challenges faced by other countries, as well as a greatly improved set of clinical skills! Another thank you to all of the administrative staff that helped us with accomodation, internet usage and settling into life in Goroka; and a last thank you to all the staff of the IMR, especially Lawrence for all his help.