Recent UND medical graduate Katie Splichal outside the Mount Isa Center for Rural and Remote Health in northeastern Australia.

 Day one was a little bit confusing.  It was a disease Katie Splichal hadn’t seen before, a tropical disease most physicians in North Dakota have probably never seen before.  The attending physician prescribed an unfamiliar medication, Panadol, which sent Katie scurrying to her medication guide.  Even though Splichal was a senior medical student on the verge of graduating, no one seemed worried about her confusion with the basic medicine (which turned out to be Tylenol).  In fact, they rather expected it.  That’s because she was doing an international rotation at James Cook University in Australia.  It was the beginning of an unforgettable educational experience, “not a vacation,” she says.

Of course, that is exactly what some naïve medical students think they’ll do while completing a clinical rotation abroad, casually going on a few rounds while making sightseeing plans on their BlackBerry.  Others imagine themselves as “super-doc,” saving the lives of the masses in some tropical location Hollywood blockbuster-style.

This isn’t reality, however.  Not for most medical students, anyway. International rotations are as diverse as the nations of the world, and offer lessons more valuable than any sightseeing trip could possibly provide. 

Katie Splichal, a native of Grand Forks, and recent medical graduate of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, chose to spend her final rotation studying rural family and tropical medicine at James Cook University School of Medicine in Townsville, Queensland in northeastern Australia.  She had studied in Australia once before as an undergrad but returned five years later more mature, and with a keen sense of purpose to learn, heal and teach.

“Students do international rotations for a variety of reasons,” says Judy DeMers, associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the UND medical school.  “Some go to learn about different health care systems, others go to brush up on their foreign language skills in anticipation of a bilingual residency.  However, the majority go simply to serve and give back in rural or impoverished nations.”