Jill and Quinten, sixth year medical students from the Catholic University of Leuven (KuLeuven), Belgium, did a medical internship at the Department of Tocogynecology and Pediatrics of the School Medical Science, SMS, at the University of Campinas, UNICAMP, more specifically at  ‘CAISM’ and ‘Hospital de Clínicas’, for about three months (1/08/2022-23/08/2022). They got the opportunity from their home-university for an exchange during their practical part of their master’s program. They applied for an internship at the international office from the faculty of medical sciences of UNICAMP and were accepted.

They both did their internships a couple of weeks in the gynecology and pediatrics departments. They didn’t only learn a lot of new practicals (for example: take a pap smear, monitor a pregnancy, fully examine a sick child...), but also learned a lot by talking to the patients, a lot about the healthcare system, the cultural differences, the different medical treatments, diseases that are not common in Belgium, etc.

They had a very wide program, so they saw many interesting things. In gynecology they went from the consultations and nurseries from general gynecology to obstetrics to oncology to surgery... In pediatrics they switched from newborns, to the general pediatric nursing unit, to consultations and also to the emergency room.

They met a lot of new people and worked together with the Brazilian students of the hospital, because of that they made many new friends. They lunched together, did many Brazilian activities outside the hospital, and exchanged many experiences.

In short, it was a wonderful and educational internship for them and they had the time of their lives here.