Difference? Maybe, the view

Every single graduate of the first 2 years of medical school (called the basic science years) is after the same prize...passing the USMLE, part I. That accomplishment allows the student to move into the "clinical years" (years 3 and 4) and clinical rotations in hospitals, doctors offices, clinics, etc. Whether you are in school at Harvard School of Medicine or Baartphuc Medical Tech Institute in Iran, if you want to do clinical rotations and practice in the U.S., you must pass USMLE...Part 1 after year 2, Part 2 after year 4 (before residency).

Therefore, as the saying goes here in the Dutch Caribbean...Wij allen zijn het bestuderen van hetzelfde (We all study the same thing). Even the text books are the same as our U.S. counterparts. And with the Internet, the world is an information "oyster" for medicine today. So what is the difference?

I'd have to say the view. During class breaks (or really butt breaks from the intensive lectures in Anatomy, Embryology, Histology, and Public Health - prevention, epidemiology, and biostatistics), we go out to the "deck" to chat, stretch, grab a soda and...look to the right...the Caribbean, the stuff of legend...

And then to the left..."the Quill", dormant volcano (where my brush with the black bull happened):

then the community and the people. There are few place left on the earth today where waving at each passing person or car, and smiling with regularity and vigor, is the norm and expected. That is Statia.

We are truly lucky to be learning in this environment. We are all focused on the "prize" of USMLE, part 1, but fully conscious that this international experience opens our horizons to other possibilities about ourselves, our studies and ultimately our practice of medicine. Het is Statia man. Ontspan en studie. (It's Statia man. Relax and study.)