If you are hunting for just the right medical school, don’t rule out the Caribbean in your search. There is more to gain for going to school in the Caribbean than just great weather and beautiful scenery. Caribbean medical students get a unique perspective on healthcare — one that is hard to find in the United States. Consider three advantages to going to a medical school in the Caribbean.
1. Let’s Start with Perspective
Physicians must work with patients from a variety of regions and with very different backgrounds. Attending school in the Caribbean introduces you to many cultures. You engage with not only the island residents but with visitors from all over the world. That kind of global perspective provides a better training environment for new doctors.
2. Experience
As a medical student in the Caribbean, you interact closely with the community. Exposure to that tight-knit world provides a more diverse experience than students see in U.S. medical schools. Most will begin working from day one, too, so the clinical options are much broader. The diversity of the island residents exposes you to diagnostic and environmental situations that don’t exist in the U.S., too, expanding your experience even further.
You can add mobility to the benefits of going to a medical school in the Caribbean. Often medical students move from hospital to hospital to gain experience. Working in both urban and rural settings is a big advantage.
3. Smaller Class Sizes
Less medical students per class allow for more personal training and instructor interaction. The average class size for Caribbean medical schools is between 80 to 100 students. Mainstream medical schools in the U.S. have four to six times as many students in each class. With classes that size, a student has less one-on-one interaction with staff and patients. U.S. students spend more time watching others work as opposed to learning medicine by doing procedures and working directly with patients.
When shopping for medical schools, think out of the box to get the best training available. That might just mean apply to a medical school in the Caribbean.
