Detroit Mercy’s Director & Advisor of Pre-Health Programs, Carmen Gamlin spoke with Atlantis Representative Lindsay Kline about an opportunity for Pre-Health Students to engage in Physician shadowing in European Countries. Lindsay spoke about Atlantis and exactly how their program works.
The goal is that not only are you earning those very valuable shadowing hours but you’re also getting the opportunity to really observe healthcare in a different cultural context; different geopolitical context and getting to really amplify your understanding of global healthcare
- What is Atlantis and who is it for?
So Atlantis is an organization that essentially provides clinical shadowing opportunities for pre health and pre-med students who want to pursue opportunities abroad.
Ideally, pre-health students will participate in this opportunity during a summer or winter break. What Atlantis does is it connects students with physicians in cities across Europe. Students are partnered with a doctor and will complete a minimum of 20 hours of week of clinical shadowing and observation only. In addition, students are able to rotate their shadowing in different specialties.
So maybe on the first day you’re in orthopedics and the second day you’re in ER and the third day you’re observing surgery.
This opportunity really is for anybody who wants to pursue any sort of career in the field of healthcare.
2. Around here, Doctors in Hospitals have an entourage around them with Medical Students, scribes and PA as they make rounds. Why do these doctors have time for our students from the US to shadow them?
Atlantis representative provides insight on teaching hospitals in Europe and how it benefits the physicians as well as the students.
We do partner with teaching hospitals… they are very interested and motivated by the teaching and learning that takes place at hospitals.
We really have a wonderful partnership with these hospitals and in the past we have actually awarded grant funding to amplify the teaching and learning that’s happening at these hospitals as a part of this reciprocal partnership….there is an incentive for these doctors to really pay attention to the students that are participating in Atlantis programs and to treat them like one of their own students or residents.
The other thing that I think is just important to know is the way in which we structure programs is that for each program and each doctor, each doctor is only responsible for two students. So again, it’s one doctor to two students ratio.
3. What other activities can Atlantis pre-health participants do while they are on location?
As part of Atlantis programs all of our groups, in addition to shadowing will participate in a minimum of 1 excursion a week. So those excursions, depending on the location, could be visits to cultural sites, museums, cooking classes, international equivalent to national parks.
So there’s so many different wonderful opportunities that we arrange for you to engage with the community and the culture.
We do arrange group meals, three group meals a week where you and your Atlantis staff sometimes the doctors and residents will join…we’ll have the opportunity to dine at a traditional restaurant, try local cuisine and step outside your comfort zone a little bit to engage with again the culture as well as the food.
Additional things to know about Atlantis:
- Atlantis is not hands on clinical experience, it is shadowing and observation only.
- Admissions team is comprised of Atlantis Alumni
- Atlantis 25 Reasons to Join
- Atlantis Brochure