The students from the University of California in Los Angeles will exchange experiences on the Brazilian healthcare model
Photo: Matheus Gomes
On Monday (20), PUCRS welcomed five new Medicine students from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), from the United States. The new students arrived at the School of Medicine to take a three-week internship in the fields of Psychiatry, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease and Gynecology at PUCRS’s São Lucas Hospital. They could come thanks to a partnership between PUCRS and UCLA, allowing for the exchange of experiences regarding the Brazilian healthcare model.
The relationship between PUCRS and UCLA began with the contact and collaboration with professor Christopher Buck, from the North-American institution, who also works in Mozambique, in Africa, in the Global Health field. Since 2018, PUCRS has been sending students from the Medicine course internships that last between two and three months in hospitals connected to UCLA, in Los Angeles, or at the Maputo Central Hospital, in Mozambique.
Through this partnership, PUCRS was also included in the North-American institution’s Global Health program, by contacting professor and coordinator of the program, Lee Miller. UCLA’s Global Health encourages students to learn about other realities, with differences regarding health systems and access to resources. It was this program that created the opportunity for the students to come this year.
According to the Dean of the School of Medicine, the creation of a Global Health program at PUCRS is also being discussed. In addition, mobility actions will be expanded, allowing for new opportunities for PUCRS’s students, who will take clinical or research internships in North America (United States or Canada), Europe (Denmark and United Kingdom), Africa (Mozambique) and Asia (Japan), still in 2023.
“The collaboration with UCLA has opened doors for mobility actions in North America and Africa, and has served as an example for an internationalization program which will be a great opportunity for PUCRS’s School of Medicine students,” he concludes.
