Volunteer doctor from Australia

from w
It's happening often in Fiji that young professional men and women volunteer to do tasks in Fiji, from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Japan and elsewhere. It's excellent experience for these young people and of course of great assistance in the projects they participate in. Sarah is a young doctor who has spent several weeks at the Labasa Hospital. One photo shows Sara at the hospital and the other photo is of two of Sarah's new friends who wrote her name in the sand! The Labasa Fiji Times journalist wrote up the story as follows:
Medical student commends service

Serafina Silaitoga
Friday, September 30, 2011

AUSTRALIAN medical student Sarah Peek has taken her hat off to local medical workers for their dedication and commitment in what she describes as a challenging working environment. The medical student from Geelong, who graduates as a doctor at the end of this year, is on a five-week attachment at the Labasa Hospital.

"The hospital staff are great and I just admire them for their dedication and commitment," she said. "For me, the working environment is very different from home which is why I admire them so much for working extremely well."

Ms Peek said the experience made her appreciate the hardship faced by both patients and staff. "The way we do things back home is also different, like the tying of tubes done to mothers so they won't have any more babies, and this is being done in Fiji. In Australia, for a very long time now, we've just used clamps on both sides of the tube and not tie them anymore. So this is one of the different methods I've noted, but apart from that, I just love the staff of the hospital."

Ms Peek said being the only Australian trainee doctor in Labasa had not made her feel homesick at all. "The staff have been kind to me and everyone in the hospital just keeps me occupied throughout the day. I think the people here are so lucky to have such good medical workers looking after them."