This experience could never be duplicated in a classroom. It's like a medical Outward Bound experience. About four trips are scheduled each year. Each trip lasts about a week and includes either Dr. Fournier or Dr. Dodard, or both, and about 12 to 15 students. The teams also are joined frequently by other Haitian and non-Haitian faculty.
Students raise money to cover their airfare, food, and lodging.
University faculty and private physicians, Jackson Memorial Hospital, and other community organizations donate most of the medical supplies and medications. Once in Haiti, students and doctors stay in either the guest quarters of a hospital, in hotels where discounts were obtained, or in the homes of colleagues they have met from previous visits. The mayor's office in Thomonde, a small town where a large number of patients are cared for, also has served as sleeping quarters for participants. Besides teaching good medicine, the trips tug at almost every emotion, says second-year medical student Thomas Heffernan, who was brought to tears upon his return to Miami following his first trip. Within my first moments back, I just started to cry.