A question about medical stuff...

[rlw104]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate your thoughts on something!

 

I'm a (mature) medical student in the UK, with a great interest in the sea and ships. I'm very interested in cruise ship medicine - a facinating combination of general practise, emergancy medicine and specialist areas as well.

 

I'm fairly familiar with the set up of medical provision on cruise ships, having friends and family in the industry in non-medical fields.

 

Here's the crux of it - in 2015 after I take (and hopefully pass!) my final exams and before starting work, we're expected to complete a six or seven week elective placement, the aim of which is to experience medicine somewhere 'non-traditional'. My aim is to try and organise something in the field of cruiseship medicine.

 

So my questions to the experts (you!) are these:

1) Ever heard of anyone doing this before?

2) How do you think it'd go down? I'm aware that I might be limited in my exposure to passengers (people might not want a student seeing them on their posh holiday, even if the student is post-finals!), but I know that with the amount of crew onboard, they have health needs too.

3) Would you, as passengers, be happy to have a (supervised) student involved in your care onboard?

 

I'd appreciate your feedback!

 

Cheers, Rach

[CruiserBruce]

Most cruise lines seem to seek doctors, and nurses, with extensive Emergency Department experience. So a "new grad" (as we call them in the US) is probably not a likely candidate. But check with the cruise lines for their requirements.

[rlw104]

Sorry, praps I didn't explain - it'd be a voluntary, observational stint. I have quite a bit more to go before being able to offer them much more!

[paul929207]

1. Never heard of it before.

2. With limited space on ships, I am not sure the cruise line would want to give up a berth to you. You might have to pay for a cabin. For 6 or 7 weeks this would become expensive.

3. I would have no objection to being treated by you. Occasionally when I go to a doctor there is someone still in training observing and I have never objected.

[Karysa]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate your thoughts on something!

 

I'm a (mature) medical student in the UK, with a great interest in the sea and ships. I'm very interested in cruise ship medicine - a facinating combination of general practise, emergancy medicine and specialist areas as well.

 

I'm fairly familiar with the set up of medical provision on cruise ships, having friends and family in the industry in non-medical fields.

 

Here's the crux of it - in 2015 after I take (and hopefully pass!) my final exams and before starting work, we're expected to complete a six or seven week elective placement, the aim of which is to experience medicine somewhere 'non-traditional'. My aim is to try and organise something in the field of cruiseship medicine.

 

So my questions to the experts (you!) are these:

1) Ever heard of anyone doing this before?

2) How do you think it'd go down? I'm aware that I might be limited in my exposure to passengers (people might not want a student seeing them on their posh holiday, even if the student is post-finals!), but I know that with the amount of crew onboard, they have health needs too.

3) Would you, as passengers, be happy to have a (supervised) student involved in your care onboard?

 

I'd appreciate your feedback!

 

Cheers, Rach

 

I absolutely 100% would accept a medical student under supervision. Teaching hospitals have this all of the time. How else is one suppose to learn.

 

Ask your placement office at school if they have ever placed a student with a cruiseship in the past. I think that it's an awesome idea. Good Luck!:)

[LHT28]

How about Mercy ships ...not a cruise ship but may take you on as a resident

[SFCAcruiser]

1. I understand that the ship medical staff is often provided by a contractor, i.e. an emergency medical practice group, and the medical staff are not direct employees of the cruiseline. This is also a common practice in small-medium sized U.S. hospitals - the medical staff in the emergency department is provided by a contracted outside agency, even though they may wear hospital ID badges. My point is that you have perhaps two obstacles to your plan - the cruise line and the emergency medical staffing group.

 

2. My opinion, unsolicited though it may be - I wonder if your plan would prove to be a valuable learning experience and good use of your time. Medical students typically want to be exposed to a wide variety of situations and the scope of practice on a cruise ship would be limiting, with likely a fair amount of "down time". Although patient presentations would run the gamut over a long period of time, you would not see much diversity during a random 7-8 weeks onboard, and would be even less likely to witness a medical evacuation. I would guess you would see repeated cases of gastrointestinal complaints and the occasional "chest pain", with a fracture every now and then.

You might want to explore other options for non-traditional settings in order to learn as much as possible, rather than to take a lengthy holiday.

[sail7seas]

Sorry, praps I didn't explain - it'd be a voluntary, observational stint. I have quite a bit more to go before being able to offer them much more!

 

 

The cruise ship would have to provide you a cabin and other expenses would include to feed you. :) They may not be willing to have you occupy a cabin that could produce revenue. While I fully understand what you would be offering, I seriously doubt any of the mass market cruise line which sail with large majority of their guests being North American. Perhaps a cruise company in Europe could be more amenable.

 

By all means, try. Call, write, research, apply........ With determination, it just might work out for you. I think it a fabulous idea but have doubts if you could sell the idea to the popular cruise lines sailing with majority of their guests being Canadian and U.S. residents.

 

[Sherlock43031]

certainly worth a shot.. crank out a nice long letter and send it off to all the major lines. worse case they say no thanks. of course if you wanted to experience medicine on a ship you could join the Navy. :eek:

[Karysa]

1. I understand that the ship medical staff is often provided by a contractor, i.e. an emergency medical practice group, and the medical staff are not direct employees of the cruiseline. This is also a common practice in small-medium sized U.S. hospitals - the medical staff in the emergency department is provided by a contracted outside agency, even though they may wear hospital ID badges. My point is that you have perhaps two obstacles to your plan - the cruise line and the emergency medical staffing group.

 

2. My opinion, unsolicited though it may be - I wonder if your plan would prove to be a valuable learning experience and good use of your time. Medical students typically want to be exposed to a wide variety of situations and the scope of practice on a cruise ship would be limiting, with likely a fair amount of "down time". Although patient presentations would run the gamut over a long period of time, you would not see much diversity during a random 7-8 weeks onboard, and would be even less likely to witness a medical evacuation. I would guess you would see repeated cases of gastrointestinal complaints and the occasional "chest pain", with a fracture every now and then.

You might want to explore other options for non-traditional settings in order to learn as much as possible, rather than to take a lengthy holiday.

 

 

I think cruiselines seek docs with ER training for a reason so my guess is that you would see much the same as what an ER doctor sees. Most ships have 5-10 thousand passengers and crew on board.

 

Burns and deep cuts requiring stitches from the kitchen staff, diabetes out of control, alcohol poisoning, head injuries caused by slips on wet pool decks or falls down the stairs, respiratory and urinary tract infections, asthmatics, COPD, gallbladder attacks, congestive heart failure, appendicitis along with death and dying all could very well occur as well as what has been mentioned already. I don't think that it will be a holiday at all. Students are generally well used by other medical staff.:)

[soozles]

I'm currently a resident in the us, I think Our medical training might be a little different than yours. I actually tried to do hris when I was a med student, but too many hoops to jump through. There was issues with the physician not being a US licensed physician and no hospital affiliation, which was a no go for my school.

[ldubs]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate your thoughts on something!

 

I'm a (mature) medical student in the UK, with a great interest in the sea and ships. I'm very interested in cruise ship medicine - a facinating combination of general practise, emergancy medicine and specialist areas as well.

 

I'm fairly familiar with the set up of medical provision on cruise ships, having friends and family in the industry in non-medical fields.

 

Here's the crux of it - in 2015 after I take (and hopefully pass!) my final exams and before starting work, we're expected to complete a six or seven week elective placement, the aim of which is to experience medicine somewhere 'non-traditional'. My aim is to try and organise something in the field of cruiseship medicine.

 

So my questions to the experts (you!) are these:

1) Ever heard of anyone doing this before?

2) How do you think it'd go down? I'm aware that I might be limited in my exposure to passengers (people might not want a student seeing them on their posh holiday, even if the student is post-finals!), but I know that with the amount of crew onboard, they have health needs too.

3) Would you, as passengers, be happy to have a (supervised) student involved in your care onboard?

 

I'd appreciate your feedback!

 

Cheers, Rach

 

Here are my votes:

 

1) Nope, not something I would know about.

2) Don't see any problem. I expect a lot (maybe most) of your patients would be crew as opposed to passengers.

3) I would not have a problem.

 

Good luck.

[rlw104]

Thanks guys! I appreciate your comments.

 

I've also considered the main issue as I see it - space. I'm trying to think of ways to overcome that one! The only trick I have up my sleeve is that my other half works on one of the bigger cruise lines, and I'm allowed to share his cabin for a certain amount of weeks each year. I'm trying to avoid this as it'll be harder to explain to the uni that it's not just a holiday, and coordinating schedules and dates might not work out... But it's there as a back up plan.

 

I think I should get a good range of experience, regular GP stuff is as interesting as emergancy to me.

 

I think I need to try to find someone to listen to my ideas without simply giving me a straight no...

 

Thanks as well for your positive comments about being treated by students - its lovely to hear!

 

Like I say, thanks for your help, will pop back if I make it work somehow (watch this space!)

[klauer]

Another issue I can think of is that some ships I've been on only have the medical office open a couple of hours a day. I don't know if the in-between time is fully booked with cruise ship staff appointments. If you have to have a certain number of clinical hours, it might take you a lot longer than 6-7 weeks to get them.