Dream Comes True: Student Visits to SVG Clinic

Article supplied by Dr Amwarul Siddiqui, MD; Associate Professor of Neuroscience & Psychiatry, Dean Admin, SJSM SVG; Consultant Neurologist, Milton Cato Memorial Hospital Kingstown, SVG. I remember my first experience seeing patients in the clinics in the 1970s, and observing how the doctor performed their duties in helping patients. It was a lifetime memory that I still hold today, as the field has become more of an industry and less of that genuine one-on-one experience. Here, in St. Vincent, MD3 and MD4 students are attending the specialty neurology clinic in Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Kingstown every week. I'm able to see that impactful first experience of students with their patients, as well as those inpatients admitted into the wards. Students are very enthusiastic about this opportunity, as it is a great learning experience what with discussions on cases combined with that practical experience. They are entering a new world, the real medical world that they will be a part of for the rest of their lives. A 20-minute interview about our times at the hospital has aired several times on local TV, also supported by the Ministry of Health. In St. Vincent, people desperately need our specialty service. More importantly, they need our compassion, and it's an honor to see the community as a whole benefit from these efforts.