Paramedic Science Electives

Your paramedic science elective takes place in the largest and best-equipped hospital in Takoradi. But that doesn’t mean it’s well equipped compared to what you’re used to. You will be in an open plan A&E with separate areas for paediatrics and minor surgery. That said, the lines between these areas blur when things get busy, which is often. You can even spend time with local Ghanaian students, sharing skills and stories. You will also see how even the smallest differences in local Ghanaian culture impact emergency care.

You will undertake your paramedic science placement in Kandy's most prominent hospital for accident, emergency, and trauma patients. In the Emergency Treatment Unit, which, as you will see, has a very limited bed capacity, the volume of patients often exceeds the number of beds. So, most patients are treated while on trollies. You will almost certainly see resuscitations, but there are other treatments like anti-rabies serum administration and anti-venom administration that will be nothing like what you're used to at home.

Paramedic science placements in Vietnam are fascinating. This is, in part, because traditional medicine is built right into the healthcare system. This means you’ll see how modern practises complement ancient traditions. In our partner hospital’s A&E department you’ll see cases like RTA’s and trauma, and unfamiliar diseases. Many patients travel in from some of Vietnam’s most rural areas, so the patient demographic is mixed.

Your paramedic science elective in Iloilo takes place in the largest government tertiary referral hospital on Panay Island. The hospital is recognised as one of the government’s centres of excellence. Emergency services here are housed in one central complex with separate areas for triage, resuscitation, internal medicine, trauma, ENT, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, and paediatrics. In this busy department, you’ll see cases of everything from tropical diseases like dengue fever, right the way through to stab wounds.

On a paramedic science elective in Dar es Salaam, you’ll see that Tanzania is seriously lacking in financial resources, and is rarely able to develop its healthcare system. The A&E department in your placement hospital here was only established in 2010. As this is the only A&E of its kind in all of Tanzania, some emergency cases are referred from many hours’ drive away. For some patients, a few hours will be too late. The department is busy, day in, day out. What’s more, doctors and nurses work shifts here, so you’ll get face time with lots of different staff, giving you a breadth of experience.

Undertake your paramedic science elective in Kathmandu, and you’ll spend time in a busy A&E. Ambulances are used locally, but for the most part, patients tend to make their own way to hospital. This means patients won’t have had any on-scene or in-ambulance treatment before you see them, often critically injured. As well as trauma cases, you’ll also see plenty of late-stage conditions — there are no primary care options in Nepal so patients use A&E as their first port of call.