University of Aberdeen

“To say my rural medicine rotation in Scotland was life-changing would be a gross understatement. While in Ullapool for two weeks, I had the opportunity to work with rural family physicians from Scotland, Ireland, and England while hosting clinics, providing emergency care, going out on house calls, and more in order to serve a rural population in the Scottish highlands.

What I learned from the incredible people of Ullapool far surpassed medicine. My experience there broadened my perspective of what it means to serve in a tight-knit community and to work as a team player to individualize care and promote both health and happiness. I then spent two weeks in Kirkwall at the sole hospital up in the Orkney Islands. Here, I had the opportunity to round on hospital patients, work in the A&E (emergency room), observe surgeries, and more. I also met medical/ radiology/ PT students from Germany, Scotland, England, Wales, and even Peoria, Illinois!

To learn about and provide inter-professional healthcare among the perspectives of providers and students from many different backgrounds really opened my eyes to new ways to approach challenges, novel exam techniques, and many perspectives of medicine and humanity that I had not considered before. I am so grateful to the Major Thomas F. Koritz Memorial Scholarship, RMED, and Dorothy over in Aberdeen who worked to make this experience possible. I am a better person and will be a better physician because of these four weeks and the wonderful people I had the opportunity to serve, to work with, and to befriend.”