Side note and Oaxaca review

While reading about cultural factors which act as barriers to Latinos in the West, I realized that great doctors are those that take ingenious means to deliver the best quality health care to their patient; even if it means learning foreign cultural values, learning a new language, or living abroad for months. What separates a mediocre doctor from a great one, is that great doctors are constantly looking for new ways to delivery the best quality of health care to their patient, even if it means doing a rain dance before a consult. As long as that rain dance can increase compliance and patient satisfaction, it's worth it... no matter how weird it may seem. I also look it at it from a business perspective. If I'm a corporation, in order to have maximum receptivity for my product, I need to deliver the highest quality product on the market; my product must satisfy the consumer over any other product available. Same applies to health care. I want my patients to be the most satisfied patients in the world. If I'm selling health care, it's going to be the highest quality health care around!

Last words of the program:

I'm going to miss all the friends that I've made through this program (except the one's that live near me because we'll be hanging out over break!). Hopefully, I'll see them all in the future, as my colleagues in the medical profession. I saw a lot of good qualities in all of them, and it would be a privilege to work with them in the future.

Oaxaca was an amazing place to learn culture, emotional intelligence, and the practice of medicine. The city is beautiful in its architecture, culture, and people. I will definitely return here as a vacationer, and maybe even as a researcher. I want to improve my Spanish so that the next time I come I can explore and communicate a lot more.

The UCD/CFHI Oaxaca program was amazing. It has matured me as a person. I feel that I'm more self aware, which has lead me to be more culturally humble and socially aware. I want to increase my skills in emotional intelligence, and serve the underserved as I have never done before. I highly recommend this program to students in the pursuit of medicine because it will teach them valuable skills they can use in every part of their future career, as well as in every aspect of their life; whether it's in marriage, business ventures, or medical consultations. I feel that the most important way this program contributes to the world is that it empowers the individual to reach their potential by motivating them to go out and serve the underserved. At least for me, I really feel compelled to get involved in community development projects tied in with health care. I know that in order to keep the skills and lessons I've learned in Oaxaca, I have to involve myself in public health projects. Another thing this program revealed to me, is my love and passion for medicine. I watched tons of surgeries and I was enamored by every one of them. I want to be a surgeon, who has the technical expertise for complex procedures, true empathy and compassion to serve his patients, and a major contributor to the development of his community. Lastly, this program allowed me to meet amazing faculty, which have guided ( and continue to guide) my personal growth and development in a positive direction. I hope that Adela will be my mentor for the rest of my life; she's a great person and has the insight to really bring out the best qualities in her students. She and other doctors I've met on this program (especially Dr. German Tenorio) have helped me form an image of the type of person and doctor I want to be; I can now put my efforts into a concrete direction. With this program now over, I say "adieu!"