International experiences prepare future pediatricians for human-centered care: IU News

Indiana University School of Medicine sophomore Morgan Foley was ready to take on the challenges of clinical rotations this month thanks in part to international grant for improvement she took it for the summer after her first year of medical school.

The highlight of Foley's college experience was volunteering on weekends at the Barretstown: A seriously fun camp in Kildare, Ireland. The camp serves children ages 7 to 17 living with serious illnesses.

IU School of Medicine student Morgan Foley used an international enhancement grant to spend the summer volunteering at Barretstown: A Serious Fun Camp in Kildare, Ireland. Photo courtesy of IU Global

Barretstown offers children and their families from 13 European Union countries opportunities to play, grow and explore without interrupting medical treatment, all free of charge. Volunteer camp leaders, nurses and doctors like Foley help the camp provide experiences not usually open to children with challenging medical diagnoses.

After that initial experience, Foley spent the next three years dreaming of a comeback. With more skills and knowledge to understand the psychology of her campers and the therapeutic recreation model the camp uses, Foley was determined to figure out how to turn around between her first and second years of medical school. Funding from IU Globals international improvement grant helped make this possible.

“My desire to come back to Barretstown was really to understand a lot more about the challenges that pediatric patients face outside of just their diagnosis, to really get the human perspective,” Foley said.

Some of her IU School of Medicine colleagues asked for one of the many research internships or lab opportunities, but Foley wanted to spend her summer doing something more patient-centered. As an aspiring pediatrician with an interest in psychiatry, she sought another opportunity to hone the specific communication style required to explain complex disease processes, illnesses, and treatments to younger patients and their parents.

While her IU School of Medicine classes included comprehensive case studies of hypothetical pediatric patients that tested future doctors' abilities to accurately identify disease presentations, Foley valued the ability to understand what a diagnosis means for the patient and their family.

“It's really a great experience to go beyond that multiple-choice question and see the actual impact,” she said.

Foley, who recently began her clinical rotations in general surgery at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said her experiences in Ireland have shaped her approach to patient interactions. Photo courtesy of IU Global

Barretstown specializes in providing therapies for children experiencing serious illness. As a Cara Irish to his friend, Foley spent last summer leading groups of campers and individuals on activities throughout the day, encouraging them to participate in all camp activities while ensuring their safety and well-being. The core belief that happiness is not just for healthy children, and the clear prioritization of mental and emotional health alongside physical health, is one that both Foley and Barretstown share.

The holistic view of health not only inspired Foley to return to the Irish summer camp; it's also what drew her to the IU School of Medicine from her native Oklahoma. In addition to being interested in living in a new city, the opportunity to volunteer in Student Presentation Clinic in her first two years cemented her decision to come to IU.

I really liked the Student Support Clinic because it's a really big, interdisciplinary clinic, which is a really cool approach to safety net health care, Foley said.

The parallels between her clinical work and Barretstown became even more apparent during the second week of camp last summer. The first week of the camp had included mainly campers from Ireland, but by the second week, the Foleys group was almost exclusively Spanish and Italian. This added the challenge of working through interpreters to the Foleys' already challenging job of encouraging campers to connect, engage and play while understanding the complexities of their diagnosis. She put that experience to work immediately when she returned to Indianapolis at the end of the summer.

There are many Spanish-speaking patients who come to the outreach clinic, Foley said. Having experience with the interpreters at Barretstown meant I didn't have to figure out how to work with an interpreter in the clinic and could instead have more people-centered interactions with patients, even with a language barrier.

As Foley moves forward in her medical career and begins personal interactions in the clinic, residency and beyond, she anticipates that her experiences with Barretstown will continue to positively shape her interactions with patients. She discovered the International Improvement Grant by accident, but has been an ardent champion of the importance and impact of global experiences, and not just for future pediatricians. Although Foley has just begun her clinical rotations in general surgery at the Department of Veterans Affairs, she has already seen the positive impact her summer experience has on her patients.

Regardless of a patient's age and background, the burden of disease on patients is not something that can be taught in a classroom, Foley said. Having the opportunity to deepen my understanding of this burden on campers at Barretstown extends to my rotations, allowing me to connect with patients and ensure they are receiving holistic, patient-centered care.

Whether your major is in neuroscience or the history of the Roman Empire, you will always work with someone who has a different background. An international experience forces you to leave your background in a new country where you may feel a little uncomfortable. It is an opportunity to grow greatly in cultural humility and cultural understanding.

Her advice to other first-year medical students is that IU has opportunities to enrich your education and prepare you for the future, whether your focus is research or patient care.

I feel like this sounds so cliché like, Oh, studying abroad is so impactful! But this summer was such an important experience for me, Foley said. I think the best thing for other people to know is to just go for it.