Our hospital is one of eleven worldwide where Dutch doctors who specialize in international health and tropical medicine (AIGT) do their final internship. Under the guidance of our doctors, they learn a lot, but at the same time they also form an indispensable part of our team in the departments and help organize all training and outreach activities. A month ago, Janneke Krommendijk handed over the baton to Suzanne Greup, who introduces herself below.
“My name is Suzanne Greup and I am really looking forward to the coming months in LHMC. Like Janneke, I follow the paediatrics/gynecology profile of the training to become a doctor in international health care and tropical medicine (AIGT). In addition to being involved in education and training in these two fields, I would like to develop as an AIGT as all-round as possible. For this, together with Lisa and Martijn as supervisors, I have drawn up a plan to also learn some basic surgical skills, such as wound care and making a treatment plan for fractures.
For the course I am also working on an assignment aimed at improving care in the community. To this end, I want to set up a pilot to identify high-risk pregnancies with a mobile ultrasound machine in a few distant villages, such as twins or breech presentations, so that they can come to the hospital in time to give birth safely.
So far I feel very welcome in the hospital. From medical staff to support staff, you are always greeted with a smile and that makes the atmosphere in the hospital very pleasant. It is hard work and sometimes quite tough mentally, so this sense of community is very important to carry the work together. On weekends it may just be that community health officers who are not actually on duty show up to help. I have also seen old colleagues from LHMC come to say hello twice, but immediately roll up their sleeves. And those many hands definitely make lighter work. I am impressed by that.”