GLOBAL EM
Journey Through Residency in Rwanda: An Emergency Physician’s Story
SAEM PULSE | JULY-AUGUST 2023
By Destry Jensen, MPH, on behalf of the SAEM Global Emergency Medicine Academy
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Emergency medicine training is relatively new in many African countries, but the specialty has rapidly developed across several regions, allowing those interested in medicine to pursue specified training in the field. This was so for Dr. Kamunga Badibanga Laurent Gamy, who started his medical career as a primary care physician in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and then chose to specialize in emergency care. Dr. Kamunga has always held a passion to pursue medicine, explaining, “I think it was something I was called for — my destiny or something I was meant to do.” In his secondary education, Dr. Kamunga felt the most comfortable in biology and chemistry courses, which first piqued his interest in medicine. He
completed medical school, then worked as a general practitioner in the Congo. After a few years, he moved to Rwanda to continue his practice. While working as a general practicioner in Rwanda, the country’s first emergency medicine training program was started. Dr. Kamunga was interested in emergency medicine, as general practitioners often worked with emergency conditions in the Congo due to limitations in emergency medicine as a standalone specialty within the country. While watching the development of the program, he saw specialized emergency training as an advantageous step in his career and a way to improve his skills. The emergency residency in Rwanda is a four-year training program for those who have graduated from medical school, consisting of weekly academic lectures, written exams, simulation
learning, rotations to various emergency departments and the intensive care unit (ICU), and research requirements. Rigorous research requisites include a quality improvement project during the second year of the program and a publishable quality thesis project during the last year of residency. Graduation is awarded to those who pass an extensive written exam, an Objective Structured Clinical Exam, case simulation examination, as well as a thesis defense that includes both a written portion and an oral presentation. Concerning the most challenging aspect of residency: “You do everything under pressure, which can be beneficial because you are forced to learn self-control, responsibility, decisionmaking, and how to best respond to circumstances quickly.” — Dr. Kamunga