Electives in Nepal

On a Work the World nursing placement in Kathmandu, you’ll see patients with conditions like Japanese encephalitis, dengue fever, malnutrition, and snake, monkey and dog bites (and the resulting cases of rabies). You can even accompany nursing teams on community outreach programmes if you choose to. Kathmandu is also a great choice if you’re interested in specialising in areas like ENT, dermatology, psychiatry, forensic medicine and cardiothoracics. You'll see that nursing in Nepal depends on the level of resources local staff have access to at any one time. So even in familiar departments like A&E, surgery, general medicine and paediatrics, you can expect to see significant differences in local nursing practises.

On a medical elective in Nepal, you'll get experience in departments like surgery, A&E, and paediatrics. You’ll encounter patients with unfamiliar conditions like Japanese encephalitis, malnutrition, and even the odd monkey bite. General medicine is fascinating in Kathmandu — some estimates suggest 70% of all conditions are attributable to infectious disease. This includes malnutrition, which is often the result of intestinal parasitic infection. Kathmandu also has particularly interesting options if you want to specialise — dermatology, psychiatry, ophthalmology and cardiothoracic surgery are all available. If you're thinking about doing your medical elective in Asia, you should shortlist Kathmandu.

If you want to understand midwifery in Kathmandu, spend time in Work the World's partner hospital. You can spend time in the new birthing centre, a busy outpatient department for antenatal checks, and the gynae clinics. You’ll see deliveries, C-sections, surgeries, and birthing complications like preeclampsia. You can also get (observational) experience in a teaching hospital. The hospital has a broad range of services — antenatal clinics, a labour room, a birthing centre, two theatres, a sick baby unit, a maternal and neonatal ICU, postnatal facilities and an OBG ward.

The dentistry department at our partner hospital here is split into four units: maxillofacial, prosthodontics, endodontics, and orthodontics. Whichever unit you decide to spend time in (you might choose all of them if you have time) you’ll see that dentistry in Nepal hasn’t advanced at the same rate as in countries with more resources, like the UK. Even things like routine check-ups are quicker and more basic than you’re used to. You’ll learn how local dentists approach things like abscess surgeries, restorations, and pulpectomies. The department offers maxillofacial surgery too, so if you’re interested there are available opportunities. If you’re looking for an elective in Asia, Kathmandu is a good bet.

During your biomedical science elective in Nepal, you can gain experience in the A&E department of the country’s main teaching hospital, which offers primary, tertiary, and specialist care. You will also have the chance to explore various fields, such as microbiology — focusing on immunology, virology, bacteriology, and parasitology — as well as pathology, covering histopathology, cytopathology, haematology, and blood bank. Additionally, you can get experience in biochemistry, encountering unique regional cases throughout your placement.

In Kathmandu, you will see significant differences between the most fundamental aspects of care. For example, a lack of patient privacy, a lack of cross-infection control, and even the way routine procedures are performed. One example would be manual intubation conducted without anaesthesia. In the busy A&E department, you will see how patients’ and families’ ability to pay for treatment has a significant bearing on the way conditions are diagnosed and treated.

Your Work the World physiotherapy placement hospital in Kathmandu treats patients from all walks of life, both from the city and from the mountains surrounding it. This means you’ll see a range of conditions at different stages of advancement. You’ll see normal cases of back pain, shoulder pain, and the department serves as a rehabilitation centre for patients after accidents, falls, spinal injuries, etc. But you’ll also see how local physiotherapists handle cases of congenital hemiplegia, Down's syndrome, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Erb's palsy, muscular dystrophy, encephalitis sequelae, meningitis, post-tuberculosis sequelae, and delayed milestones. The neurology, orthopaedics and ENT departments also refer lots of patients here for rehabilitation.

The radiology and radiography department in our partner hospital offers USG, Helical CT, X-ray and MRI, X-ray being the most common. You’ll see a lot of emergency cases here too, as A&E refer a lot of their patients to the department for scans. The hospital also has a mammography unit if you want to get more specific experience. The unit uses an Allengers Digital Mammography System (FAIRY). This is a university teaching hospital, so it’s more than likely you’ll get the added benefit of spending some time with local students. This is a real opportunity for you to dig into the differences in practise between Nepal and the UK.

Part of a pharmacist's role in our partner hospital is counselling patients on their medication. What are the side effects? Who can and can't take them? Shadowing doctors on ward rounds will give you great experience with this. Spending time in the dispensaries, you’ll get right into the specifics of local practice, learning how local pharmacists use traditional herbal medicines alongside modern drugs. Across the hospital, you’ll learn the broader role pharmacy plays in the ongoing development of healthcare in Nepal.