Ever since I was 5 years old, I’ve been captivated (obsessed really) with the idea of becoming a doctor. The concept of relieving people’s biggest worries about their physical or mental health and optimizing their well-being has always fascinated me. Well, I would be lying if I said I haven’t thought about the money aspect of becoming a doctor too, but believe me, my fascination with medicine is much more than just money. When I was little I visited homeless shelters and orphanages that consisted of lots of sick people. All I thought about during those moments was what I could do to make them feel better, to free them of their pain and troubles. That’s when I realized indefinitely that I wanted to be a doctor; ever since then it’s just always been a passion of mine.

Apologies, for that little story, I’ll save the rest of that for my college essay 😁, but what this CAS post is really about is my experience interning at a hospital, meeting a variety of doctors, and patients, and learning about the different departments that make up a hospital, and especially seeing if this career path is for me and if it is something I want to pursue in the future.

The internship program was a 2-week long program hosted by the Nawaloka Hospital, the program consisted of experiencing all the different departments that make up a hospital.

Day 1 – On the first day, I was given a signup sheet by the hospital’s medical director to get signatures from each doctor I had shadowed from every department I had visited. I shadowed a doctor in the Outpatient Department (OPD). I observed different patients coming in with various symptoms. The doctor carefully assessed their symptoms and referred them for further tests or to other specialists, or prescribed the necessary medication for treatment. One specific case that stood out to me was a patient who had come in with symptoms including dizziness, vertigo, upper body pains, and a wound on the left foot. After asking the patient a variety of questions to get the full picture and identify all the symptoms, the doctor inquired about any pre-existing conditions. The patient mentioned having hereditary spherocytosis, a condition where the red blood cells are round like a sphere instead of being disk-shaped, affecting the patient’s immune system. By identifying these variables, the doctor concluded that the patient’s immune system was weak due to her wound and prescribed antibiotics. I had learned and experienced a variety of different diagnoses in great detail like this with explanations of each issue in great detail from the OPD doctor I was shadowing as he was kind enough to explain how the different symptoms translate to various diseases and how he treats them accordingly. I had written down all my experiences in my journal which I had used as a reflection journal so I could record all my experiences and do some research on the things I had learned on that day.

Now after spending an hour in the Outpatient Department, my supervisor had called me and arranged for me to watch a Coronary Bypass surgery INSIDE THE SURGICAL THEATRE. I can wholeheartedly tell you that it was genuinely one of the coolest experiences I have ever experienced, the atmosphere of the surgical theatre was so calm and relaxing with the surgeons cracking jokes while stitching veins taken from the leg into the heart. It was the first ever time I had seen a real-life heart outside the body in front of me. Dr.Vaikkar (the assigned cardiac anesthetist for the surgery) showed me inside the heart using a transesophageal echocardiogram and showed me the patient’s blocked arteries. He also showed me the different equipment used, such as the Heart Lung Machine and much more. While the Cardiac surgeon was performing the surgery he was showing me the different parts of the heart and how he sews on the veins taken from the leg. This surgery was quite amazing to see as it has given me an insight into what the surgical theatre environment is like and how these surgeries are performed (If interested there is a video here I took of the doctor using the transesophageal echocardiogram)

Day 2 – The next day I visited the fertility center and shadowed Dr.Maruthini (the person who had helped me out immensely throughout my 2 weeks of doing this internship), it was a very different experience as Dr.Maruthini showed me how she analyzed the different results of the various patients such as sperm count and the egg count. This was a very different experience compared to my normal shadowing experience as it showed me a different side of the medical field that I was unfamiliar with. This experience showed me the various factors that come with having a child through the IVF process and the different types of treatments available for couples who are infertile or not able to have a child. I also watched the different ovary scans of various patients (with their permission) and Dr.Maruthini showed me different reports of various patients and how their ovaries had changed in size over time therefore she keeps track of all this information in a digital and physical database. I also helped out with an “Intra Uterine Semination” in which the doctor walked me through the step-by-step process of how everything happens and the requirements needed to be a sperm donor, she also showed me the amount of sperm needed from the sperm donor and how much of it is used.

After spending an hour in the fertility center I watched a “Pilondial Sinus Surgery”, this surgery was quite interesting as the surgeon performing the surgery explained the reason why this specific surgery is done and why it happens which is due to ingrown hair or hair insertion. The doctor showed me the whole process of the surgery where he first inserts a tube into his vocal cords and administers anesthesia. After doing so he removed the cyst in the infected area, While performing the surgery the surgeon showed me the various types of equipment that he used such as an endoscope which was a camera with a tube to locate the infected area and the cyst.

I finished off the day by looking at a “Cardio Angiogram” which is a process done to check for the blockage of arteries in the heart. The doctor showed me how he inserts a tube through the person’s wrist into their heart to check the arteries. In this case, the patient’s arteries were blocked and so the doctor inflated a balloon inside to unclog the arteries. This was a very interesting process as it also used the knowledge I had learned in biology class about arteries.

Day 3 – On the third day, I visited the immunization department. The medical officer in charge showed me the different vaccines they administer to people of different ages. She explained that they first administer a Measles vaccine when a baby is 3 months old and then a second one when they turn 3 years old. This vaccine helps boost the patient’s immunity and prevents the contraction of Measles. The medical officer also showed me the “Papillomavirus” vaccine, which is given to women in Sri Lanka to prevent ovarian cancer. She also told me that children born after 2023 are only administered the “Hepatitis B” vaccine as it boosts long term immunity.

After visiting the immunization department I visited the Pediatric ward, I was very interested in visiting the pediatric ward as I babysit a lot and so it was useful to know the different types of symptoms that children show and how they are treated. I walked with the doctor on his rounds to see the different types of patients who were staying in the hospital. The first patient we visited was someone who had constipation due to a poor diet and an increased amount of carbohydrates so the doctor recommended she drink lots of electrolytes and increase her fluid intake. The next patient we visited was a 1-year-old with a case of Down syndrome and she was in the hospital due to a hernia. The fourth patient we visited was in the hospital due to a phlegm buildup which I had observed using a stethoscope, the doctor had given me my own stethoscope which I had heard the difference in breathing. The final patient we visited was in the hospital due to dengue, so the doctor checked her blood pressure and told me that he had to observe her for 7 days and monitor her platelet count as if the platelet counts drastically decreased it could cause hemorrhages.