University of Bath 2015
My trip with work the world has definitely been something to remember – fantastic in every way! Before leaving, the staff were very helpful and organized and were always able to answer my questions, no matter how silly. The MyTrip site is very useful, and had all the information and guidance I needed for the whole trip. 
Upon arrival I was immediately greeted and taken to the house – no faff at all! Everyone at the house was so lovely and I had no problems fitting in as a solo traveler – plenty of people here come on their own too! On Monday we had our briefing, orientation and introduction day at the hostpital and around the city – this was very helpful for getting around Iloilo, and also very interesting in the hospital. It was very useful to be able to have a tour of the whole hospital on this day, so that we could get a feel for what the atmosphere, procedures and general culture and environment was like before we split off into our individual departments or wards. We also had a fabulous traditional lunch – don’t miss the mango shake!
The hospital placement itself is very varied – there are a lot of things you will experience that are a far cry from our western hospital, but in that there is a lot of opportunity. My placement was in pharmacy, which was very different to home. Clinical pharmacy is well known here, but in the government hospital that I worked in it was being newly introduced. It was fascinating to see how they are trying to implement the newer clinical aspects of pharmacy and still cope with what little resources are available to them at this hospital – having said this, they are quite creative and resourceful! The whole pharmacy team really make the placement - they are so lovely and extremely helpful.
There few ward stocks and family members must come to the pharmacy to buy all medications, fluids, needles and other devices before they can be used on a patient (except obviously in ER).
There are also a very different mix of common drugs here – painkillers and antihypertensives are not overly common, while antibiotics are given prophylactically to almost everyone (when you get here, you will see why!).
The house here is lovely, and the people here too. All the staff in the house are wonderfully helpful and are able to help with any issues. The food here is also brilliant – don’t want to miss a meal! At the weekends, everyone tends to go off travelling as there is a lot to do in the region. On my first weekend here I went to borocay – a lush island with big white sandy beaches. This was really nice to chill, do some snorkeling and various watersports, and the weather was fab! The next weekend I went to Antique – a popular thing to do here as you have a weekend jam packed with waterfall swimming, boulder jumping, river tubing trekking, and you even get to have a bath in a giant wok with fire. Guimaras is an island not far from here which is also a good day trip for a chill beach day – though watch out for jellyfish!
Overall I have had a truly wonderful month here in Iloilo and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone!
