New York City had a lot to live up to - I've been excited about coming here for the better part of two years. Somehow, however, everything has surpased my expectations. As you can probably tell from the lack of blog posting up until this point, Dan and I have really been getting the most out of the city. Ironically, the increased availability of electricity and internet access has coincided with a decrease in the amount of time that we have to update the blog, but rest assured - we're having an amazing time!
For the moment, I'm not going to detail everything that we've been doing in our spare time. I'll probably do a detailed description of the delicacy known as Korean fried chicken at some point, but I'm currently resisting the urge. Instead, I'd like to talk about medicine for a bit.
So that everyone is up to speed, I'm in New York doing a placement in paediatric (I still refuse to spell it the American way) endocrinology. If I'm honest, I was expecting to feel a bit smug about the UK way of doing things. Anyone who knows me and my 'liberal agenda' knows how attached I am to the NHS, and I am willing to admit that I came into this placement with a prejudiced view. I was semi expecting to claw my way to work through hoardes of people begging for health care while doctors inside the hospital feed grapes to rich people who are being carried around on sedan chairs.
Although there are significant problems with the US healthcare system (and several things that they do better than the UK), the similarities between the styles of medicine really took me by surprise. Here, in the UK and even in Malawi, the desire to make sick people healthy - as simple as it is - seems to run through at a very fundamental level. The methods are different, the obstacles are almost incomparable, but it appears to me that a lot of people across the world went into the medical profession for similar reasons.Whatever my observations about comparative healthcare and international health, the last five weeks really have cemented my respect for healthcare professionals, and I'm honoured to count myself among them.
In other news - I love people's reaction to my British accent. I know we're meant to find it annoying, but it's quite nice to be complimented on it as if it's some sort of skill. I think I've started milking it a bit, I may well start overdoing it if I'm not careful.
Pip, pip and cheerio chaps.
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