Students spend 3 days at rural health posts where they learn how Chile faces the challenge of providing quality healthcare to residents of more rural areas.

“The three days we spent learning about rural health in Chile were the most transformative days of the program for me. I confirmed that I feel the happiest when I am working with patients, and therefore I MUST become a doctor. I must admit, however, that to a certain extent the experience in Bollenar [the rural town in which we were placed] was a glorified version of playing doctor – we dressed up in our lab coats, performed physical exams on patients, and were called doctor y doctora. But more than memories of a game of doctor, I was left with a new conception of what primary care is in Chile and what it should be in other parts of the world: nutrition for infants and the elderly, vaccinations, public workshops on self-care and most impressively, house visits to bedridden patients, all on the governments dime. Rural health in all parts of the world is distinct from urban health, and Chile proves no exception. I believe that the rural health experience was extremely necessary to round out our understanding of the challenges Chile faces in health, as well as its accomplishments.” –Jillian Irwin, HSI ’09 participant