
Volunteers Around The World
About
The purpose of VAW at USC will be to help improve the standard of living for those that live in poverty stricken communities around the world by raising money in order to buy medical supplies, and by providing them with access to medical treatment, medication, and health education, while familiarizing students to real-life medical situations and the deprived state of certain populations in the world. VAW – Medical Outreach provides volunteers with an opportunity to work first hand with experienced local doctors. Volunteers will fund raise for medications and supplies prior to the trip abroad. While in country, volunteers will assist the doctors, perform triage, distribute medications, teach classes on hygiene, nutrition, and first aid. All volunteer activities are under the direct supervision of a licensed Physician. This is an intensive internship, valuable to future nurses, future physicians and other future healthcare providers as well as those interested in seeing what it is like to work in a developing country. The internship is focused on giving volunteers a variety of experiences, deepening their understanding of the medical field, and broadening their global view.
This internship is designed to give volunteers an experience as close to being a practicing physician as is possible before going to medical school, while ensuring the safety of and ethical treatment of patients, by having all aspects of the work directed by licensed physicians. You will spend every clinic day doing one of the following activities:
Shadowing a Doctor
Volunteers sit right next to the doctor and listen as he or she meets with patients, diagnoses conditions and prescribes treatment. Volunteers will have countless opportunities to ask questions and learn as much as they would like. Volunteers may even learn a few skills like how to differentiate between the heartbeat of an unborn fetus and the mother with a stethoscope, or how to treat an open wound.
Measure Vital Statistics
Learn how to take blood pressure readings, analyze blood sugar levels, take height and weight measurements, and temperature readings. Volunteers will learn these skills and then apply them, under the direct supervision of a Registered Nurse.
Patient History
Volunteers meet patients as they come into clinic, take their personal and medical history and record their current symptoms. They record all of the information for the doctor’s review.
Manage the Pharmacy
Once the doctors have prescribed medications, volunteers count out the prescriptions, under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist. The pharmacist then gives the medications to the patient and explains to the patient how the medication should be taken. Note: All medications are purchased in the country where the clinics are being conducted to ensure strict conformity with the guidelines of the World Health Organization which require that medications are based on local formularies and in local languages.
Local Medical Exposure
Some countries offer volunteers the opportunity to shadow a doctor at their local clinic or hospital, attend a medical class at a local university or visit the local elderly home.
Education Day
Teams will travel to a local school and teach children the importance of hygiene, dental health, hand washing, nutrition or another subject the team decides to teach. Ideally teams will bring something to distribute to the children such as toothbrushes or bars of soap.
In-Country Schedule
VAW Medical Outreach trips are 15 days and 14 nights. All teams will have five or six Medical Work Days and one Education Day, the rest of the time volunteers are free to explore the beauty and local culture of their host country. Each country varies slightly in how the schedule is arranged and what opportunities are available.
All volunteer housing, food, staff and in country work transportation is included in the program fees. Volunteers pay for their plane tickets, spending money and fun travel.
Volunteers attending the Medical Outreach Trip must have an active passport!
Medical Outreach Membership
Students interested in joining the Medical Outreach Trip must submit the VAW Volunteer Application. Once the student submits the application they will schedule a short interview with the executive board members.
Once interviews are finished and the new Medical Outreach Chapter is established, members will attend a meeting to choose the host country and the dates of the Medical Outreach Trip.
Host country options are Peru, Panama, Cambodia, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala.
Change Due to COVID19
Due to the pandemic we had to postpone our trips. We are planning to pick back up where we left off and begin planning new trips for this upcoming year. We intend to continue growing our organization this year and we are accepting new members. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. We will be holding interest meetings throughout the semester and member meetings. Hopefully we will be able to hold meetings in person but there will be an option for virtual meetings as well. We are looking forward to working with you all this upcoming academic year!