Medical Student Perspectives: Journey through Different Worlds

Medical Student Perspectives: Journey through Different Worlds

Binod Dhakal (USAMedical College of Wisconsin, USA) and Susan D. Ross (Consultant Internal Medicine, USA)
Copyright: © 2011 |Pages: 9
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-097-6.ch009

Abstract

This chapter traces the learning experiences of a medical student through his career journey in medical training from two different world settings of Nepal and US. The chapter sketches the author’s interactive learning with his patients through his case notes right from his medical student days in Nepal to residency in the US. The juxtaposed commentary from a senior physician provides a longer view lens through which these learning points may be considered. These case notes and narrative insights from the health professional’s perspective thus aim to demonstrate and stimulate experiential learning in medicine, a valuable means of obtaining expertise.
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Introduction

Illness is deeply embedded in the social world, and consequently it is inseparable from the structures and processes that constitute that world. For the practitioner, as for the anthropologist, an enquiry into the meanings of illness is a journey into relationships (Kleinman 1988).

My aim during this process of learning has been to document the journey where I came across a few issues of human life beyond the scope of modern medicine as it is often taught. These were not only stories of human suffering from disease per se but stories of social, economical and psychological pressures. These narratives have been published earlier in a different platform. (Biswas, Dhakal 2003)

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