"It was truly an honor to have participated and experienced such a program."
Maria Rita and her fellow students during their program at Campus Bio-Medico University in Rome.
Maria Rita practicing suturing techniques in the skills lab at Campus Bio-Medico.
The Doctors in Italy program is a fellowship program that allows immersive clinical shadowing experience for pre-medical and medical students in Italy. Having taken part in this program, I met many talented medical professionals that taught me what it means to be a medical doctor. I came back with my heart so full of love for the medical profession and the Italian culture. It was truly an honor to have participated and experienced such a program.
Being thrown in the deep end of the operating room was intimidating at first, with Forbes and her peers hugging the walls for the first few days. “After those first couple days, we were all standing side-by-side with the surgeons, asking them as many questions as possible,” Forbes said.
She was given a level of access to surgical expertise and skills that weren’t available to her stateside. She soon discovered that if she showed up early, the surgeons would share extra background information and x-rays with her before scrubbing in. Pair that with a more direct level of access to patients and their information due to Italy’s lack of HIPAA (a federal law that protects the privacy and security of health information), and her time in the Italian healthcare system was full of surprises.
“My first day, they found an accessory spleen during one of the surgeries, which is just a nodule of splenic tissue that is not a part of the main body of the spleen,” Forbes said. Adding to the oddities of this fellowship, she was able to hold and study a uterus and several tumors. “This entire experience allowed me to be more confident and more vocal, so when I’m in medical school, I know to ask questions instead of being scared.”
During my two weeks in Rome, I went on to shadow many surgeries such as a coronary artery bypass, three ophthalmology surgeries, eight plastic surgeries, a laparoscopy, a thyroidectomy, a carotid endarterectomy, ophthalmology clinical and various medical simulations.
After seeing the amazing work done by the doctors, I fell deeper in love with medicine and became even more curious about it. It taught me how important building connections with doctors is, how essential it is to listen and make the patient comfortable, and how clinics are just as important and interesting as surgeries. The medical field is a wide range of medicine, human connections, and passion for helping others. Furthermore, I learned the importance of being patient during my medical journey. It is not linear, it is difficult, tiring, and sometimes too much to bear. However, with discipline, motivation and love for the profession, it is so worth it.
In addition, I enjoyed the cross-culture in the program. I met wonderful people from various countries and learned about all kinds of cultures such as Mexican, American, Spanish, Italian, and Panamanian cultures. It was so fun to make friends and connections from all around the world and exchange cultures and stories.
