Interning in Sevilla (and other things I've done while here!)

Hey! My name is Kyle and I’m doing the GlobalEd Abroad 2+2 Medical Internship program in Sevilla, Spain. I’m here for a month doing a Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) course followed by two weeks of interning at a hospital. I didn’t know what to really expect or look forward to when I signed up for this program, but it’s been incredibly exciting and I want to share all about it what I've done for anyone interested in this kind of thing. I'll begin with my program/s day to day.

PHTLS

I started my first two weeks with my PHTLS training. Every day we’d start by discussing EMT theory and then do practice scenarios, either with a training dummy or one of us playing a victim. In a group of three, one person would be the “leader” and direct the situations, ranging from cardiac arrest to car accidents to even a multi-step earthquake extraction. We’d arrive on scene, do our multi-step assessments, and provide the on-site emergency care. At times, it proved to be stressful and I was definitely pushed in ways I couldn’t have even fathomed before. Still, this was the kind of training and preparedness I’ve wanted for years and I believe I’ve come out more confident and better for it. This training would run from about 9am to 5pm Mondays through Thursdays, leaving the remainder of the days and the long weekends open for whatever we wanted.

Hospital

Part two of my program here in Spain includes two weeks of hospital rotations, which I'm currently in the process of. I’ve finished one week so far and I’m thoroughly enjoying it! I’m interning at Vithas Hospital, a private hospital with a lot of different departments. My shifts go from 9am to around 1:30pm, depending on the doctor I’m with and the caseload of the day. So far, I’ve done two days in pediatrics, one in the ICU and one in the ER, as well as one day in the adult ER, so I’ve seen a wide range in my small snapshot of hospital life. It’s incredible seeing patients come in and get assessed by these doctors with years of experience, then to hear the thought processes behind everything discussed. I also got to visit the NICU ward twice, which I really enjoyed. I came into this experience primarily interested in cardiology, but now I’ve found a budding interest in pediatrics. I’m unsure what to expect for my remaining few days, but I know that I’ll learn and see a lot. I may even have the opportunity to watch a heart surgery, which is exciting as that’s one of the things that struck up my interest in healthcare in the first place. Unfortunately I don't have pictures out of respect to privacy.

Extracurricular Activities

My newfound friends and I would spend our nights trying different tapas bars around Sevilla. And with or without them, I was going out for ice cream pretty much every single night. So if anyone needs recommendations, I have an amazing list and I am more than willing to share. I also took full advantage of my weekends off to travel to a couple of the other beautiful cities in Spain. 

Italica

Our first excursion was to Italica, the ruins of an ancient Roman city. To backtrack, I found out something incredible on my first night with the other students: all three of us were Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon fans. Luckily for us, Spain is home to many of the filming sites used in the two shows. Italica was home to the Anfiteatro de Italica, the spot where the big families met in season 7 of GoT, so naturally we had to go!

STARSTRUCK

Our other classmate managed to book us a private, guided tour of the city where we learned a lot of its Roman history, culture, and beautiful architecture. We ended the tour with the Amphitheater in all of its glory, where I unfortunately nerded out and took many pictures. 

Comparison

Granada

That same weekend, a day later actually, we took a train to the city of Granada. One of the others had studied there before so we got our own sort of guided tour, hiking up to the Alhambra, an Islamic palace, walking around the city, and trying some of the best churros I’ve ever had in my life. I will say, if you end up going to the Alhambra, which I do very much recommend, wear shoes with good traction, as some of the steps were kind of slippery. We also went to an Irish pub later than night and watched one of the Eurocopa games, Netherlands vs Turkey. Let’s just say “rowdy” was a complete understatement. 

Ronda

I went on two solo trips in the weeks after. One was a two-day trip to Ronda, a city with the most incredible bridge I’ve ever seen before. The Puente Nuevo is a gigantic bridge made of stone over 200 years ago, which is absolutely insane to me. There’s a canyon hike you can descend to get an amazing view of the gorge and bridge (I’ll attach a picture, but it’s something I think you need to see for yourself). Other places I explored were the Mondragon Palace, the Arab Baths, and the Museo Lara S.L. The palace and baths were cool to see, but they were ultimately a little small and over with soon. Not to discourage anyone from going to see them, of course, admission was very cheap, but I think that the real prize was the museum. There were centuries of Spanish history on display, as well as a basement full of witchcraft and terrifying medieval torture exhibits. Skin crawling stuff, but fascinating in its own right. 

Cadiz

The other self trip I went on was a simple day trip to Cadiz yesterday. I’ll be honest, as a student living in Hawaii, going to a beach town was not high on my list of travel priorities. However, one of my friends studied here in Spain before me and said that I absolutely had to visit. In all honesty, I saw where he was coming from. Cadiz has a HUGE stretch of beach that you could spend an hour or two walking down and the water is so incredibly clear. I didn’t even make it all the way down before I realized I had to turn back to make my return train (but that’s a result of train delays and planning a short trip). Would I say it’s a must-see in Spain? No, but it wouldn’t be a waste of your time, either. 

Program Provided

I’ve talked a lot about my travels outside of Sevilla, but I should also mention that my program has had a lot of activities for us to do within the city. We started the entire trip off with a horse and carriage ride through the city followed by a tapas dinner to try a couple of Spanish foods. There was also a boat tour, a flamenco show, and a visit to the top of Las Setas, a giant wooden structure that I learnt was actually the largest one in the world! But that’s not all. We also had an ice cream social, another night doing a tapas crawl, and coming up, a paella cooking class that I’m very much looking forward to.

View of Sevilla from Las Setas

Long story short, there’s no shortage of things to do here in or around Sevilla. A lot of activities and travel are actually on the cheaper end if you know where to look/book, and I say if you can do it, open yourself up to the experiences. You'll thank yourself for it in the years to come.