I will be traveling to Botswana to work on the Medicine wards at Scottish Livingston Hospital (SLH) in Molepolole. At the hospital, I will be taking care of patients on the inpatient General Medicine wards (including the Isolation ward, which treats patients with active tuberculosis infections). I will also be working in the outpatient clinics including the primary care clinic, the HIV clinic, and the tuberculosis clinic. While working at SLH, I will provide formal and informal teaching to interns and Medical Officers at SLH. This includes bedside teaching during rounds as well as morning educational lectures.
The population served will be the residents of the Kweneng District of Botswana, which is home to just under 400,000 individuals. SLH serves as a secondary referral center within Kweneng District, and while I am there I will be part of the team providing general inpatient Internal Medicine, outpatient primary care, and both inpatient and outpatient HIV-related and TB-related healthcare within the Kweneng District. The ratio of doctors to patients in Botswana is much lower than in the United States, increasing care gaps within this population. This is compounded by recent medical supply shortages.
Additionally, I will play a role as a medical educator for interns training within Botswana’s medical education system. Botswana currently has one medical school which was opened in 2009, therefore medical education infrastructure is still relatively young in the country.
Botswana has approximately one tenth the doctors per capita as compared to the United States. Therefore, the most immediate impact will be directly providing healthcare to individuals in a system with significant physician shortages. I also hope to contribute to a sustainable impact by directly training upcoming Batswana medical professionals through medical education, including both bedside teaching with interns from Botswana as well as formal educational presentations during my trip. Many of these doctors will continue to work in Botswana throughout their careers, contributing to the long-term effort to decrease shortages.
Lastly, as I intend to subspecialize in Infectious Disease after residency, this opportunity will help me hone a valuable skillset within ID, particularly in regards to tuberculosis care and HIV care. I anticipate that my exposure to TB and its complications will be much higher in Botswana than while practicing in the USA, which will be critical to my growth as an ID physician. I will be able to transfer these experiences and skills to patients throughout my career.
