Six Months Of Global Service Voices

Photos of service trips are everywhere. What’s missing is the part that changes you: the voice, the hesitation, the courage, and the why. At our six-month mark, I’m stepping back to reflect on what International Service Learning with Experiential Medical Education is really trying to do and what I’m hearing across dozens of global health stories.

I share a bit about my own background, more than 50 years in nursing, over 20 years involved in international service, and a lifetime of travel that keeps reminding me how much you can learn when you’re not intimidated by language or culture. Then I walk through the guests who have shaped the first phase of the show: former students now practicing as physicians, pharmacists, and nurses, plus healthcare executives, Peace Corps voices, medical students, undergrads from all majors, and gap year students. The goal stays simple: get to know the person behind the work and how their path actually unfolded.

A few themes keep showing up with surprising clarity. Guests describe stepping out of their comfort zone as a leap of faith, especially when it’s their first time traveling or their first time working inside a different healthcare system. Over and over, they tell students who are on the fence the same thing: “just do it.” And beneath everything is the most important global health lesson of all, advocacy for people who don’t have a voice, whether that service happens abroad or right in your local community.

If these conversations help you reflect on how you can pay it forward, share the show with a healthcare-focused student or friend, subscribe, and leave a review so more people can find the stories.

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to not only share with you our guest’s introduction to international healthcare, but also to share with you how that exposure to international healthcare has shaped their future path in healthcare. As true patient advocates, we should all aspire to be as well rounded as possible in order to meet the needs of our diverse patient populations. 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with my students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that healthcare focused students need, and greatly benefit from the opportunity to have hands-on experiential healthcare experiences in an international setting! I have seen the growth of students post travel as their self-confidence in their newly acquired skillsets, both clinical and cultural, facilitates their ability to take advantage of opportunities that previously may not have been available to them. By rendering care internationally, and stepping outside one's comfort zone, many more doors of opportunity will be opened.

Feel free to check out our website at www.islonline.org, follow us on Instagram @ islmedical, and reach out to me @ DrH@islonline.org

Transcript

Welcome And Six-Month Check-In

Dr. H 0:00

Well hello, this is Dr. Patrick Hickey, or Doctor H, as many of my students refer to me. On November twenty-fifth, twenty twenty five, I started the initial episode of International Service Learning with Experiential Medical Education. This podcast was designed to hear the voices of those that have been engaged in international service. And I say hear the voices because the podcast forum allows us that opportunity. We see people that have engaged in international service on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, whether it be a picture or short reel, but we don't hear the voices, and we don't hear the passion. And that passion is very important, and that's what I want to share through the podcast is the passion of those that have been engaged in international service. So today I'm going to keep it very brief. Again, this is a six-month review of our podcast.

Why I Host This Show

Dr. H 1:05

I want to talk a little bit about why I am qualified to host the podcast. I want to talk about some of the guests that we've had on board, some of the commonalities that I see that are jumping out from the podcast, and then our plans moving forward. So as far as my qualifications, uh I've been a nurse for 50 plus years, worked in a variety of settings in healthcare. I've been involved in international service for over 20 years, through leading trips abroad with healthcare-focused students or involvement in fellowships in international development. And my wife Carol and I have traveled quite extensively. To date, 88 countries around the world. I share that part because I love travel, love adventure, and am not intimidated by foreign language or culture and actually enjoy meeting from other meeting people from other countries. So I try to share that passion with my students. So again, I feel that I'm very qualified to host a podcast on international service because of my international experiences, my healthcare focus, and my service experience.

Meet The Voices We Feature

Dr. H 2:20

Guests. We've had to date about 27 guests on our podcast. It's been a weekly podcast, but for those listening, uh, we've taken a couple of weeks off to uh do some more interviews and reassess where we're at. But the guests really stand out, and it's uh been quite a variety, actually, of guests. We started with former students, and those former students are now practicing physicians, pharmacists, uh practicing nurses. Uh some of our guests are healthcare executives, uh, members of the Peace Corps, uh, medical students, uh, great number of undergrads, and a good number of Gap year students also. So uh a great variety of students uh from uh every major. And if you listen to the podcast, you'll see that we would like you to get to know our guests. We like you to see um what major they had while they're in their undergrad years, what they were focused on at that time, and are they doing what they thought now in life is what they had planned when they're during their undergrad.

Comfort Zones And Leaps Of Faith

Dr. H 3:28

So the commonalities that I've seen that have jumped out uh from the podcast to date, uh, number one is stepping out of your comfort zone. Uh guest after guest after guest have shared that it was a leap of faith, so to speak, when they stepped out of their comfort zone to travel to a developing country. Uh, most of the students have never traveled before, uh, have never traveled uh unless they were with their parents. So again, that leap of faith. But they stepped out of their comfort zone to go to a country where they did not speak the language, did not understand the healthcare system, but did as good a job as they could to render aid. Uh, another commonality was um uh from many of the uh guests was the term just do it when posed with the question, what would you recommend to students that were on the fence or were maybe sort of kind of interested in doing something similar? A good majority of the guests would share, just do it. Take that leap of faith and get out of your comfort zone. And what was really huge uh commonality was the advocacy for those that did not have a voice. Um, almost everybody to a tee that was interviewed shared that advocacy that they wanted to do as much as they

Just Do It And Advocate

Dr. H 4:50

could to create opportunities uh for these people. So those are some of the commonalities that have jumped out. I shared with you the guests that we've had. Plans moving forward, what we plan to do this summer is to reflect and reintroduce some of the podcasts that have stood out. And again, we've had 27 to date. All of them are very unique in their in their own right, but we're going to be sharing uh those podcasts and a little bit of an introduction to the podcasts, and and and I'll be facilitating that uh through Sound Bites. And we hope that you'll be able to uh enjoy the podcast. If you haven't heard them before, here's an opportunity. Uh, what I would recommend too, um, as you're listening to the podcast, is read the description of the podcast uh that's available, whether you're using uh Spotify or uh Apple. Read the description that's in there because that says a lot

What Comes Next And How To Help

Dr. H 5:45

about the the guest and and where they're from and and what they're trying to do. So I do uh appreciate your support of International Service Learning Experiential Medical Education. Uh I'm very hopeful that you will share it with healthcare-focused uh students and friends. Uh a couple of uh the uh interviews that we've done have been with uh uh people I met through LinkedIn, um healthcare um medical uh sales representatives and and healthcare professionals that have shared their voice on LinkedIn and what they've been able to do, which made a difference in the lives of many that listen to their voice. So, again, I'm very hopeful that those that are listening will take advantage of this opportunity to themselves look for an international healthcare experience, or if not able to finance that on their own, know that there are many, many, many opportunities in your local area where you can extend yourself to provide service. So, again, Dr. H at International Service Learning Experiential Medical Education, just reflecting on our six-month mark. Um, from what I've seen and what I've heard, uh I believe we're right on where we where we want to be. Um, I have heard from many, many, many listeners that uh the episodes they've listened to have been pretty significant and have um caused them to reflect on their position in life and how they can themselves pay it for. So I know it's working. Um again, I hope there's a message out there that resonates with you, and I hope that you can share that message that you hear from one of our guests with those that can potentially make a difference in the lives of others. Wishing you a great day, Dr. H with International Service Learning, Experiential Medical Education.