University of Portsmouth 2019
For my elective placement I travelled to Hue, Vietnam with Work the World. I didn't have a preference on which country I travelled to, so I picked with my heart which always leads me to food!
Alongside my love for food, Vietnam was a new destination for me and everything about the country looked amazing. So off I went and booked my once in a lifetime trip!
On arrival I was greeted at the airport by the Work the World team who knew who I was before I even got the chance to put my blue Work the World top on! They had done their research on my profile and knew so much about my preferences already.
Everything was so much better than I ever imagined.
We made our way to the house and I got settled in straight away. Everything was so much better than I ever imagined.
The next day I had a lovely tour of the city and the hospital. The hospital was nothing like I had seen at home in the UK. Although the outside was modern and well looked after, the inside just reminded me how lucky we are to have the NHS at home.
For my four week placement in Vietnam I had chosen accident and emergency, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology. All of them taught me how different the healthcare is in comparison to the NHS.
I learnt how to use gloves filled with water as pressure relieving equipment and how to do an ECG with a very different machine. There were many opportunities to learn new things throughout my placement and with the willingness to put myself out there I got so much from my time away.
My favourite memory from my placement was my time in obstetrics and gynecology. I learnt how to wash around 100 babies in the space of 2 hours. I got to assist with caring for tiny babies in the NICU who depended on hospital staff for everything.
The biggest memory of my entire trip was meeting a little baby boy whose mother decided she couldn't keep him and therefore he was an orphan. We helped to look after him everyday and he was the sweetest!
We spent all of our weekends travelling to other parts of this beautiful country!
We spent our evenings after placement exploring the city and local attractions, including the Imperial City and the abandoned water park.
There was plenty to do in Hue including bars, clubs, restaurants, street food, shopping and boat trips. I never got bored!
All I can say is, do it! Don't worry about the money, you'll find a way of raising it like I did! It's the best experience and definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity.
