Internship in Italy Shadow Doctors 20+ Hours/Week

The fellowship I did in Trieste, Italy was an amazing experience. I got to meet new people from across the US who are instead in the same career path as me. I also got to know a experience a completely different care system than the one in the US. I also got to learn about the culture in Trieste. I would definitely recommend this fellowship! My site manager was really helpful and nice. It was great to see the city through the eyes of a local. I definitely saw things and are places that I would have not see or eaten had it not been for my site manager. This fellowship helped in reaffirming my decision to go into medicine and become a doctor. I was able to shadow different doctors in different types of departments. For example, cardiology, neurology, radiology and general surgery!

Prior to my trip, I was nervous because I will be beginning my first year of college this fall. It was my first shadowing experience. The atlantis staff on the post enrollment team dissipated that fear by giving me all the information I needed before going abroad. After I meet all the other fellows, I realized I would be learning as much from them as I would be from the hospital and city. They each had different backgrounds and different topics they were knowledgeable on. Between the other fellows, shadowing in the hospital (ER, Pediatric Surgery, and Neurosurgery) and my incredible site manager, I had a life-changing experience. My indecision about pursuing medicine is gone and I am beyond excited to begin my studies without any fear this career path isn’t for me.

Going to Trieste was the best experience of my life. I am currently a pre-med student and was struggling with finding shadowing internships until I came across an ad on instagram for Atlantis. I was hesitant to apply because I assumed it was false advertisement. Boy was I wrong. This program is amazing and I am happy to report that I have no regrets with my trip to Italy. Shadowing was amazing and of course the language barrier was a little difficult in the hospital, but it has made me more aware of the fact that there are different cultures out there and we need to be tolerant. I learned more about medicine from my three weeks in Trieste than any book could teach me. Not only do I have some hours down to prepare for my medical school application but I have experience and a great memory to share with others. So thank you Atlantis!

If you are even slightly interested in pursuing a career in healthcare, Atlantis is for you!! I have shadowed countless times in the United States, and I can honestly say that Atlantis proved to be the richest and most valuable of all my shadowing experiences thus far! This fellowship challenges you to escape the comfortable perimeters of your own medical culture and teaches you that healthcare is such a beautiful universal language! This fellowship taught me so much about myself, about my host country, and about medicine. Although I missed home, three weeks came and went far too quickly! I cannot recommend it enough! If you are considering doing an Atlantis fellowship, please GO DO IT!!!!! It will be one of your best decisions, I promise!

This was my first experience abroad and I have to say when it came to an end I did not want to leave. The site mangers were so knowledgable of the city and they did a great job showing us around. They planned amazing weekly excursions for us not just of Rome but throughout Italy. Not only did I get a great experience abroad but I learned so much from shadowing in the hospital. Every doctor that I worked with knew english well so the language barrier was not an issue. They were all so kind and seemed to really want us to learn from them. What I saw and learned in the hospital was nothing near what I could have learned as an undergraduate student in the US. It was a great mix of education and fun for the three weeks that I was there. From this experience, I have expanded my interest in the medical field and I have developed a new love for travel.

I am very very satisfied with my shadowing experience abroad in Italy. At first, I did have my concerns as the AAMC shows statistics and discourages students from SHADOWING abroad due to the risk of students being involved in medical procedures. I would like to clear this doubt for those who are interested in this fellowship as Atlantis is VERY VERY strict and abides by their policy of no physical fellow-patient interaction. Atlantis is very clear with all the rules that must be followed etc. That being said, the fellowship was incredible. I was able to shadow under general surgery, urology, and vascular surgery. All of these departments always had surgeries or patients and all the hospital staff were incredibly helpful. Though some of the hospital staff did not speak english, many if not all residents spoke english and were able to explain procedures to you if the attending surgeon was busy. Many of these doctors are incredibly well trained and have excellent english so language barrier is usually not a problem.

Aside from shadowing, the weekly excursions (I don't want to spoil them if you are attending the fellowship) were very very fun. There's a lot of pictures to be taken and a lot of friendships to be made and it was quite the experience. Genova is very very scenic with mountains, beaches (mostly rocky but you can still find sandy beaches), and architecture. Genova is known for their pesto and I really really recommend you try it.

The Atlantis fellowship is expensive but provides you an experience that is priceless. I was able to pay for this through fundraising, asking family members, working a part-time job, and a little bit of assistance from my parents. This really has taught me good saving/spending habits for my future.

When I saw this opportunity to go abroad and shadow doctors I was immediately intrigued. I thought about it for a couple weeks, and I kept on finding reasons why not to go... “it’s so far” “i should work this summer” “it’s not the right time”
I then realized, it will never be the “right” time. I just have to take the leap of faith and just do it! I did exactly that, and I don’t regret it one bit. Not only did I submerge myself in a different culture, I met doctors and nurses who I now have built a relationship with. If you ever go to Rome, one piece of advice is never plug in a hair dryer and have the washing machine going, unless you wanna be in the dark for the rest of the day. The adventure was everything I could have ever asked for, thank you for the opportunity.

My Atlantis experience was one that I’ll never forget and one that helped me narrow down my search for the specialty I would be most interested in pursuing a career in! I spent two and a half weeks this past winter in Pavia, Italy where I had to opportunity to shadow Internal Medicine, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery, General Surgery, and Nephrology alongside 17 other like-minded and driven undergraduate students from across the country. This experience was so unique because no other program gives students the opportunity to shadow physicians in hospitals while also getting a chance to be fully immersed in a foreign country and getting the chance to explore what the culture of your host nation has to offer! One of my favorite things that Atlantis offered me was the relationships I formed with the other students on my trips. Many of us still keep in contact to this day and it’s so great being able to catch back up with them from time to time and see how they are doing both personally as well as with their journey towards a career in healthcare. Atlantis offered me so much and I’m thankful that I had a chance to complete not one but two trips and I want to encourage anyone looking for a similar experience to apply today!