Clinical Exchange in Japan

For the previous four weeks, I have been a member of the General Medicine and Respiratory teams at the Nagoya University Hospital, Japan. It has been an incredibly experience which I will look back on fondly. During this time, I worked closely with various doctors, varying from interns to consultants, both within the hospital setting as well as in General Practices at Kachigawa and Ena. Each morning, I would attend the morning meeting to discuss current inpatients, attend ward rounds and outpatients, with periods of private study in between. Throughout this time, I was also able to continue developing my Japanese skills talking to both doctors and patients.

The General Medicine team was quite small, with the total number of inpatients being about 6-8 on average, whereas the Respiratory team is much larger with a total inpatient number of about 50. The hospital itself specialises in lung cancer and restrictive lung disease, which predominated my time on the wards. Despite only being able to speak minimal medical Japanese, everybody went out of their way to assist me in understanding. Inpatient ward rounds were very interesting, with regular student teaching by the consultant and exposure to conditions which I previously had only seen once or twice.

Everyone in Nagoya that I met were extremely courteous and helpful. I have a minimal level of Japanese allowing me to communicate basics, however had no prior experience with medical vocabulary, and the team were patient with teaching me new words regularly and making sure I remembered them. During my time, I had the opportunity to assist with the insertion of chest drains multiple times, and interpreted many chest X-rays of the current inpatients. The day trips to Kachigawa and Ena were superb, and provided me with a new aspect of Japanese healthcare to observe. The Kachigawa clinic is based in an up-and-coming suburb of Nagoya, and as such many of the patients are sick children. The clinic runs more on a ‘walk in’ basis with very few prior bookings. Contrastingly, the clinic in Ena was based in a nearby town with a population of about 3’000, and the average age over 60. It was remarkable how similar the major morbidities and provision of healthcare was similar to Adelaide.

On weekends, I explored the city with my Australian colleague Marina Hayashi. Each weekend we would pick a new location to explore: ranging from Nagoya castle, the Science museum, various temples and shrines, Nagoya train station and Sakae shopping districts and Higashiyama zoo. Nagoya has a fantastic subway system with cheap full day fares on weekends, making life easy for the poor medical student’s budget. I was also able to travel away to nearby Gifu and Inuyama one weekend to explore new areas (and castles). The hospital has many nearby restaurants with cheap, yet delicious meals that the team regularly explored with myself.

This rotation, while short, is something I am unlikely to forget for many years to come. It provided me with a great experience of healthcare in a foreign country while furthering my medical knowledge and experience. I worked with a team of knowledgeable and enthusiastic doctors who made me feel incredibly welcome, and as such found leaving after the four weeks very difficult.

I wish to thank all the doctors on the Medical and Respiratory teams, as well as the staff of the Office of international Affairs for all their hard work and answering my constant questioning. This is an experience that I will always cherish.

Left: Dinner with the General Medicine team
Right: Final day with Respiratory team