Botswana Internal Medicine Residency – BIDMC

Country: Botswana
City/Town: Molepolole
Type of Site: Clinical
Organization/Institution: Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Scottish Livingstone Hospital (SLH)
Year of Study: Resident
Dates: Fall/Spring
Website: http://www.bidmc.org/Botswana

Program Description:

This elective provides an opportunity for internal medicine residents (and infectious disease fellows) to work in a resource-limited setting and to provide general and specialized medical care in a country with a generalized HIV epidemic.

The goals are to learn how to deliver quality care in a resource limited setting, to enrich the medical training and experience of participating residents and local health staff, to fortify the clinician-educator role of participating residents, to encourage career paths in global health and research, and to provide physician support for Scottish Livingstone (District) Hospital in Botswana.

Qualifying residents will spend at 4 or more weeks working at the Scottish Livingstone Hospital (SLH), which is a large district hospital in Botswana located an hour’s drive from the capital city of Gaborone.

The physician will be integrated into the daily routine of the hospital, focusing on participation in inpatient ward rounds. Interested participants will also have opportunities to work in the Urgent Care clinic or the Infectious Disease and Care Clinic (IDCC) connected to the hospital.

In the inpatient setting, participants will be responsible for leading a team rounding in either the male or female medical ward several days per week. Commonly encountered inpatient conditions include chronic medical diseases like heart failure, hypertension, renal failure, infectious diseases such as TB, complications of HIV infection, and a broad range of other medical problems.

In the outpatient setting, participants will see an average of 20 patients per day and will manage all aspects of their care in conjunction with the SLH permanent staff. The on-site BIDMC-affiliated attending physician will supervise all rotations.

Participants will also identify educational and training needs at the hospital, and will be expected to prepare at least two educational talks or training sessions for the medical staff during their elective. During ward rounds, residents will be expected to teach on complex cases.

Past participants have led educational activities such as journal clubs and lectures, and have initiated collaborative quality improvement and research projects through this elective. There are also opportunities to further the work of several longitudinal quality improvement projects ongoing at the hospital with BIDMC staff.

Additional Information: if you are interested in this rotation, please make an appointment with Jason Rosenfeld.