PeriSCOPE - Edition 2, August 2010
Primary Care in Chile From Brazil to Chile: flavor of wine and smell of adventure
Lourielthon B. Gualda de Souza
about the author Lourielthon Gualda de Souza is studying medicine in Maringa, Brazil.
My exchange in Chile was simply amazing. My name is Lourielthon B. Gualda de Souza; I’m from Maringa, a city in the South of Brazil. In January of 2010, I underwent a SCOPE exchange in Primary Care in Santiago, capital of Chile. My objectives were to better understand the way that the Primary Care in Chile is organised, Chilean’s culture and gaining the maximum knowledge that I could in the fields of: practical medicine, patient care socio-cultural and professional development. I can say that I was very surprised with this wonderful experience. Firstly, I chose an exchange abroad because I personally think that a change from the ordinary daily routine to a new experience is a very positive and beneficial experience. We’re used to seeing everyday life through a prism, but when we put it in another perspective it contributes to creating a concept closer to the world’s reality. Not that Chile was so different than Brazil. Unfortunately, both have poverty, but in Chile I could see another way of social care organization working together within the healthcare organization. In my opinion, Chile has the best social organization system of South America, because, at least, what I noticed is that generally everyone has access to food, which is different from Brazil.
things with them and also encountered patient cases that you don’t find in books. I established a friendly relationship with my tutors and I felt very comfortable to ask questions and to practice. This environment led to my superb learning and put my tutors as another good reference as real doctors, not just people graduated in medicine, but people whom we can proudly call: Doctor, A model of doctor one should try to achieve in medical formation. The opportunity to learn more about the structure of the Primary Healthcare system and at the same time make new friends, gain new experiences and live new exciting things, changed some of my previous concepts, in other words, changed my
Furthermore, it is interesting to note the formation of the population and culture of this nation. Chile has an incredible social diversity from other countries of South America mainly Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. I felt there was an interesting union between Chilean culture and the culture of the other countries. I see that the Latino music, books, art, TV programs and other things are mixed in a common knowledge and get part of the general culture of the country. It is such a thing, that we don’t have in Brazil with the other countries of South America, maybe because of the language or the colonization. Regarding the SCOPE exchange, the doctors that I trained with were excellent; I learned many
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perspective of Chile and also my perspective of the world. Chile is a wonderful country, which rose
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