As a graduation requirement, all Oceania University of Medicine (OUM) students must spend at least one four-week rotation at Tupua Tamasese Meaole (TTM) Hospital, the University’s primary teaching hospital in Apia, Samoa. Some students choose to spend even more time on OUM’s home island.

Making clinical rotations an adventure

Dr. Alen Rusmir, OUM Class of 2015, ended up completing three rotations in Samoa. Since he reached the clinical curriculum before he and his wife had children they decided to make his rotations an adventure they shared together. 

“My wife got to accompany me on many of my rotations so we have fond memories. It really is a journey and we made the most of the hard work,” he says. “The opportunity to experience other cultures helped me to better relate to and understand my patients,” said Dr. Rushmir, who had been a successful podiatrist in Queensland prior to medical school.

Dr. Rusmir feels strongly that his time spent in Samoa rotating at TTM Hospital laid a great foundation for his other rotations, for his board exams, and for life now that he is a practicing physician.

“A podiatry colleague who had attended OUM and initially got me interested in the program, also recommended spending as much time as possible in Samoa. So, I spent six months there completing my Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Surgery rotations. I saw pathology that I knew I would not see elsewhere and felt very confident as I went on to other rotations.”   (Dr. Rusmir is pictured above during his internship at Mackay Base Hospital in Central Queensland.)

Not enough for this graduate, either

In early 2017, OUM Class of 2018 graduate Dr. Marika Stubbs completed her first clinical rotation, the 12-week Internal Medicine rotation at TTM Hospital in Samoa. While only four weeks are required, Dr. Stubbs says that would not have been enough.

“Twelve weeks in Samoa was the best thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “It was a challenge and an expense to spend three months there, but it was so worth it. You see things and treat things you will likely never see again. It is a unique environment that offers amazing hands-on experience that will help you with all of your other rotations.” Dr. Stubbs is currently a GP practicing in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Stellar patient exam skills are acquired 

While some students may be surprised when they first arrive to find fewer diagnostic resources than they are used to, they come to learn that they will be learning better physical examination skills instead. Most students upon their return from Samoan rotations, tell classmates they will learn physical examination skills from Samoan doctors that you will not learn elsewhere. They come to realize that there may be a tendency to over-rely on blood work and diagnostic testing in the more populated West.

Husband and wife team flourished in Samoa

“You feel very much part of the team in Samoa, able to work with consultants and with local students and those from other schools,” shared Dr. Rustum Moodley and Dr. Stacey D’Almeida, OUM Class of 2021 graduates currently at Canberra Hospital in Australia — Dr. D’Almeida as Resident Medical Officer and Dr. Moodley as Senior Resident Medical Officer.

They were usually in the same pre-clinical modules together, which extended to doing clinical rotations together. While they completed most of their clerkships in Samoa, Drs. D’Almeida and Moodley completed their Surgery and OB rotations in Nepal.

“Samoa rotations provide great teaching and hands-on opportunities to learn and perform procedures you may not get to in other countries,” says Dr. Moodley, pictured right (Dr. D’Almeida is far right).

Another OUM Class of 2021 graduate who joined them for rotations in Samoa was Dr. Lisa Wallace. While they got to know each other during online lectures, the first time they met in person was especially ironic.

“During a break in our clinical studies, we were on holiday in Bali,” says Dr. D’Almeida. “We noticed through each other’s Facebook posts that Lisa and her husband also were in Bali on holiday.” After that, the three OUM students completed rotations together in Samoa, joined by Dr. Wallace’s husband.

Providing unparalleled cultural competency

In today’s increasingly globalized world, OUM’s required Samoa rotation equips its graduates with a cultural competency that is essential for ensuring that the doctors they train are ready to interact with patients from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and are able to provide care that is not only medically effective, but also respectful and sensitive to patients’ beliefs and practices.

“A lot of medical schools will teach cultural competency in the classroom. But actually being immersed into another culture gives you a level of competency, not only for one culture that is very different from yours, but by also providing a new way to look at things and to examine your own assumptions,” says Associate Professor Nicolette McGuire, PhD, OUM’s Associate Dean for Student Engagement. “Our Samoa rotation gives students hands-on experience to be able to apply cultural competency in a medical context that you don’t have at many universities.”

More graduates sing the rotation’s praises

Australian graduate, Dr. Caroline Harris, OUM Class of 2025 (pictured below during clinical rotations with the Royal Flying Doctor Service), completed a Pediatrics rotation at TTM Hospital during her clinical studies.

“The lab was closed for a week while I was rotating, so critical thinking skills were really mobilized because bedside clinical diagnosis was required, going on just symptoms and history with no labs,” says Dr. Harris. “The experience really adds something to your clinical learning, and there’s a lot of cultural competency you can also pick up which are skills much needed in the workplace. So, yes, a big ‘thumbs up’ from me for the Samoa rotations.”