Friends for Asia offers several exciting internships in Thailand, all of which offer applicants the opportunity to gain valuable professional experience in a dynamic, cross-cultural environment. One of the most sought-after placements is our Medical Internship project – which we offer in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai at a few of the most prestigious private hospitals in Thailand. With summer fast approaching, we’ve already started receiving plenty of inquiries about the availability of our Medical Internship Projects.
For that reason, we thought we’d take a few minutes to communicate a few of the key benefits of the medical intern placements we offer. Here are five excellent reasons to consider enrolling in a summer medical internship abroad – and specifically in Thailand:
1. Get a Head Start On Your Peers.
One of the great things about doing a medical internship in Bangkok or Chiang Mai is that reputable, international-grade hospitals in Thailand allow interns to get involved in hospital operations well before their counterparts in the West would. While pre-med students can certainly find volunteer work in the area where they live or study, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to participate in the local healthcare system at such a high level. Furthermore, volunteering in Chiang Mai or Bangkok gives you the opportunity to step away from your daily environment and enjoy the perks of visiting Thailand. You can serve as a full-time intern from Monday to Friday, with the chance to experience the country and its culture during evenings and weekends. You’ll hardly even notice that you’re also working 40 hours per week.
2. Fill out Your Resume with Eye-catching Experience.
Medical school is competitive, to say the least, and admissions staff are on the lookout for applicants who have gone above and beyond in terms of padding out their resume with experience. The fact that you’ve logged so many hours with patients – during which time you learn basic skills and are exposed the inner workings of an international hospital – demonstrates that you’re serious about developing a career in healthcare.
While a range of volunteer scenarios serve to fill out your resume, it bears mentioning that admissions staff are going to weight your volunteer experience more heavily if it’s clear you acted out of a genuine desire to help others. You’ll want to sign up as an intern through a reputable organization that has a positive track record for affecting change in the projects it partners with.
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3. Enjoy an Incredibly High Level of Access.
An undeniably strong selling point to undertaking a medical internship in Thailand is the high level of access to facilities, patients and medical staff that you’ll enjoy. It’s something that medical interns in Thailand rave about when they return home.
In the West, there’s simply no way that hospitals could allow students to work so closely to patients. However, Thailand has a much more laidback approach. That’s not to say that Thai hospitals are negligent in any way. On the contrary, medical interns are taken behind the scenes in the course of shadowing a doctor, but they’re closely supervised. Depending upon their experience, comfort level and abilities, they may be allowed to carry out some routine healthcare tasks – but never in any way that would jeopardize the quality of care delivered.
4. Add Cross-Cultural Skills to Your Toolkit.
On first consideration, it may seem that cross-cultural experience has little value in the context of healthcare. However, the ability to cope and even thrive in a foreign culture is valuable to virtually any future profession. While gaining on-the-job experience in Thailand, you’ll also be developing interpersonal tactics, language skills and strategies for navigating an intercultural environment.
Thailand is a great place to hone multicultural skills. The cultural is friendly and hospitable, and the people are people are delightfully laid back. Not only that, Thai people in Chiang Mai and Bangkok have plenty of experience around foreigners – all the more so in the first-rate private hospitals where FFA sends medical interns. Even if you are only spending a short time on assignment, you’ll find that the doctors, staff and patients you interact with are warm and welcoming.
5. Work in one of the Leading Healthcare Destinations in the World.
Many of the private hospitals that operate in Thailand are of the highest caliber. This has propelled Thailand into a leading position among medical tourism destinations around the world. This is especially true in Bangkok, where the top hospitals are nothing short of world-class. For that reason, patients arrive from all over the world to seek first-rate treatment at incredibly competitive prices. Over the past decade or so, this trend has generated an extraordinary amount of revenue for the top hospitals in Thailand, much of which is reinvested in state-of-the-art equipment and operating theaters.
Furthermore, many of those private hospitals in Thailand that are not in the ultra-elite category still offer a superb level of healthcare and are able to attract international patients. With that in mind, signing up for a medical internship in Bangkok or Chiang will exposes you to the latest trends in medicine. In the process, you’ll gain valuable experience that’s directly relevant to your ongoing studies back home.
Apply Now for a Summer Medical Internship in Thailand
Friends for Asia has many years of experience setting up medical internship placements in Thailand. As we work with a select group of hospitals in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, we have developed strong professional relationships with the administrative staff at each of them. If you’re planning on undertaking a summer medical internship this year, submit an application today and we’ll get the process started right away.
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