Clinical Exchange in Japan

I had the privilege to go on a 1 month exchange to Nagoya University Hospital, Japan. If I only had two words to describe my stay here, then eye-opening would be it.

My exchange started with 2 weeks of Anesthesiology. There I spent the vast majority of my time in the operation room. I had the opportunity to see skilful anesthesiologist performing all kinds of Anesthetic techniques and being tutored about the pharmacodynamics of them. Even though I performed some procedures like bag-valve-mask ventilation and insertion of nasogastric tube, in hindsight I wish that I would have been more involved hands-on. The best period of my entire exchange was when I did a rotation in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU). There I had the luck and met Maeda-sensei and Masiku-sensei. They were incredible pedagogical, and took their time from the sometimes hectic workday to tutor and discuss medicine with me. The only let-down was that I only spent 3 days at the SICU.

My last 2 weeks included Cardiac Surgery. I attended to operations every day, lectures, and patient presentation from the students. My favorite part of the rotation was when the chief professor of Cardiac Surgery Akihiko-sensei took the students and me to the SICU for questions and discussion regarding Cardiac Surgery and intensive care.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude towards the Office of International Affairs and Miho Kobayashi in particular. The hospitality and kindness from all the employees at Nagoya University has been amazing. Furthermore, the students there are hardworking, ambitious, and made my stay there a memory for a lifetime. Arigato Japan. Arigato Nagoya.