Ross University takes medical care to communities

Barbadians continue to benefit from the medical expertise of students and staff of the Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM).

On Wednesday, the Community Clinical Experience, an initiative of the RUSM and Forlam Foundation, continued its work to provide quality primary healthcare services in local communities, while partnering with Urgent Care Mobile and the Barbados Red Cross Society.

Clinics were set up at the Haynesville Community Centre, in St James and the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS), Spry Street in The City, the Forlam Clinic in Carrington Village and the Barbados Family Planning Association.

Ross University’s Associate Dean, Dr Rhonda McIntyre, said the clinical experience which was recently launched has been designed to give students exposure to administering medical care in a community setting. She said students are expected to meet patients in communities and learn about what affects residents’ access to healthcare and what limits their ability to live healthy lifestyles.

“We have actually created a programme where we have students exposed to social determinants of health and we have students interact with community physicians and nurses within community centres to provide healthcare but also get to see a different side of the clinical healthcare. We know that medical students get to go to hospitals and clinics and they get the conventional experiences, but we want them to see what truly affects patients in their communities, and that’s why this programme was launched,” Dr McIntyre said.

The Associate Dean explained that almost all of the 400 students enrolled in the first semester of the 2022 to 2023 school year will be involved in the university’s Community Clinical Experience outreach programme. Each student will have at least three experiences to go into different communities, throughout the semester, she explained.

“As you see we actually focus on clinics and communities where we know access to healthcare could be an issue for patients. Urgent Care has been valuable for us in facilitating healthcare at some of the sites,” Dr McIntyre said.

Managing Director of Urgent Care, Dr Bandele Majeks, said the company was pleased to be partnering with Ross University to facilitate the community clinics in different areas across the island. According to him Barbadians have been experiencing difficult times, and even though there is free healthcare available through the state, everyone may not be able to access it.

“Urgent Care Mobile in particular, this is something that we have been doing since the launch in 2016. We have been out in the community seeing patients and we thought that this was a fantastic opportunity to be actually able to deliver healthcare for free for those who can’t access it. We have brought our mobile clinic which we have also had from inception and we are able to see patients in a private setting.

“As we speak, we were able to dispatch a team of our doctors and students into the community at a resident who wasn’t able to actually make it to the centre, that is someone who is immobile. What a great opportunity to be able to administer healthcare as well as participate in moulding the minds of future physicians,” Dr Majeks added.

Haynesville resident, Sonia Agard, who visited the community clinic, lauded the initiative which she said will meet the needs of those who are unable to get to the hospital or polyclinic, due to various factors.

“Like me for sure, I know I wasn’t feeling well and it came in very handy for me, Agard said. “It was interesting because I never went through anything like this. Normally I go to the clinic. They were very professional and I felt comfortable”. (AH)