Post-RM Fever

« When five medical students bring a mysterious South American virus back to Canada, they have no idea of the consequences. Family, friends and colleagues are rapidly infected as the students race against the clock to find answers to their questions. »

Sounds like the synopsis for the next apocalyptic zombie blockbuster, doesn’t it? Actually, it describes our situation with over-imaginative accuracy. In other words, we all have a cold and we’re struggling to catch up for upcoming tests. Yeah, I know, booorrrrrrring.

The return trip was a tad more exciting: layovers, delays, cancellations, reservations, lost items… oh and the #Blizzard2016 got us stuck in the international terminal of Sao Paulo airport for a day (There’s another blockbuster! The Terminal — Tom Hanks).

The purpose of this final blog post is to reflect on the objectives that I gave myself in blog post #1. Without further ado, here it goes.

1. Discover projects conducted by other local officers which could potentially be conducted in Quebec.

• Status: Completed.
• Note: Although I discovered many projects, not many are truly applicable to the vision I have for SCOGH at Université Laval. It was interesting to see what other countries are doing and I can certainly use this information to help other local officers.

2. Discuss neglected diseases and their impact on healthcare in South America.

• Status: Failed.
• Note: Although I could have randomly started discussing neglected diseases with someone, I wanted to do it in a more official context, which unfortunately did not quite fit into the SCORP agenda for the week.

3. Discuss the impact of climate change on health.

• Status: Completed.
• Note: More and more people are interested in this perspective on healthcare. It was actually one of the topics discussed during the theme event (Health Equity). IFMSA-Quebec has done some work on climate change and health and now IFMSA-Panama is launching its own SCOGH to address the issue!

4. Find out more about the culture of Uruguay.

• Status: Completed.
• Note: The most important of all: they eat supper late!

5. Have fun!

• Status: Completed with distinction.
• Note: It was a busy week but being in another country makes everything go so smoothly!

4/5 –> 80%. That’s more than I got in the respiratory system last semester…

I  think it’s safe to say that we all grew in multiple ways from this regional meeting. We all left Uruguay with something new (other than a cold): an idea perhaps, or greater motivation. For me, it was a sense of purpose. I discovered the fundamental nature of the IFMSA and how it contributes to bringing nations closer together. I also felt like we are all reaching for a common objective, that is, greater health for all.

Side note: I keep talking about how we brought back a cold, but it’s also accurate to say that we caught RM and that now we have post-RM fever (it’s a real thing you know)

Again, I cannot stress how incredible this experience was and how the other members of our delegation played a major part in making it so. Aline, Lucy, David and Charles-Antoine: you’ve been perfect travel companions, leaders, translators, teachers and most importantly friends. Hope we can do this again some time.

Cheers,

William