By Dr. Ahmad Mahdi
Six months into my medical residency, I have grown more comfortable waking up earlier than usual and at colder temperatures. I have learned to embrace procedure and operate on a regularly irregular schedule. Today on my way to work, I watch the fog clear and feel my pulse synchronize with my pace.
Continue reading “A Survivor Mindset in Times of Peace: A Lebanese Experience”
By Dr. Roberto Fu
As I stepped out of my plane in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I had multiple things running through my mind. Relief was the first thing that came to me. The whole process of joining my U.S. training program had been marred with painful uncertainty due to the pandemic, and yet now I was here. The airport was very quiet that day. It was a clear reflection of how COVID-19 was impacting life in the United States. The road to the hotel where I’d stay for the next few days was lined with empty sidewalks and closed stores.
By Dr. E Chin Mak
I’m sitting in my residency library on a gloomy spring afternoon during my trauma surgery rotation. I stare out the window at the shedding cherry blossom trees, and I reflect on how the last ten months flew by. As I’m waiting for a trauma alert to be paged out, another chest tube, another bedside thoracotomy, I think back to where I was exactly one year ago today. I was packing up my bags in Ireland, prepared to move across the pond to a new country, ready for my first full-time clinical training experience and to start a new life. Little did I know how much I would learn in medicine, and in life.
By Dr. Kevin Carroll II
I am a proud Bahamian native and a fully Caribbean-trained international medical graduate. I am also a newly matched categorical general surgery resident. Achieving my dream of matching to a general surgery residency was not an easy feat. Prior to joining my current program, I had no U.S. clinical experience. After being recognized for some accomplishments in a surgical department in my home country and acquiring my Membership of The Royal College of Surgeons, I decided to pursue my goal of training in the United States. I worried that my prior achievements would not be enough. I believed in myself, so I took some risks and I networked extremely hard. After spending a preliminary year in general surgery at a program located in Georgia, I accomplished my dream. My story is proof that determination makes it possible; to those who have doubts, don’t give up! My journey to this point has been difficult and I am so grateful to the Exchange Visitor Program for making this opportunity a possibility.
Continue reading “Improving Patient Care Through Cultural Diversity”
By Dr. Kushinga Bvute
We were young, happy, in love, and planning for the future. My husband thought that it would be prudent to explore the possibility of furthering our careers abroad to ensure a secure future for our family. He was a banker but also very passionate about farming. I was fresh from university and not yet established, so we decided that I would be the first to pursue opportunities abroad.
