Volunteers Around the World (VAW) is a NGO that focuses on improving the standard of living for communities living in poverty, with an especial focus on providing access to medical treatment, medication, and nutritional and health education. The Penn Medical Outreach Chapter of VAW consists of students that are enthusiastic and committed to addressing the health disparities that currently exist in developing countries (such as Guatemala, Peru, Panama, etc.).
The Medical Outreach program recruits volunteers and provides them with an opportunity to gain first-hand observance of physicians and medical practitioners working in a clinical environment. Volunteers participate in training (including learning the basics of a foreign language/culture) and fundraising for the 1-week trip in the spring and 2-week trip in the summer. Once abroad, volunteers assist the doctors by:
- Taking patient history and creating a system for patient records on a long-term scale
- Measuring vital statistics (height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, glucose readings, etc.) and diagnosing hyper/hypotension and diabetes
- Staffing the pharmacy and learning basic pharmacology, dosages, and treatment plans
- Teaching public health classes and learning about diseases common in communities with their corresponding treatments.
- Consulting patients and shadowing doctors
- And many more responsibilities!
This is an intensive internship, valuable to future nurses, physicians, public health majors, and anyone interested in seeing what working in the medical field is like.
Each team of interns holds a max of 22-25 individuals. Email us if you have any questions regarding the trips and club.
