Heart and Soeul
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I was both awed and excited upon my arrival to Seoul, South Korea.  I haven't been to my home country since my family and I immigrated to the United States more than 20 years ago.  I couldn't wait to immerse myself in the culture, and especially wanted to try all the different types of foods.  

 

My home for the next 10 weeks was in a dormitory at the north end the Yonsei University campus.  The campus is located at the Northwest side of Seoul, north of the Han River.  Yonsei University is much larger than JHU (Homewood campus).  It has beautiful architectural buildings, some of which date back to the early 1900s.  The medical center is located at the south end of the campus.  I found the campus to be safe, and felt very comfortable walking around at all times of the day.  Many restaurants and shops outline the south end of the campus.   A subway entrance is about 30 minutes walk from the dormitory.  Seoul has a great public subway system.  It takes you everywhere you want to go.  I relied on it heavily to visit museums, shops, and eateries.

 

Katie and I were involved in various projects, and we had the opportunity to learn a great deal about South Korea's health system.  We were educated on various aspect of the country's health.  The big difference between Korea's health system and ours is that they provide full medical coverage to all of their citizens regardless of their economic status.    South Korea  has the same kind of challenges we have in the U.S.   Their major challenge  is  maintaining a national wide health system that is cost effective, which is similar to our challenge in America of ensuring that Medicare remains viable while keeping costs  affordable.  Some of the highlights of this trip were the visits to the  numerous health related organizations.  Some of the sites I visited on my trip included the Korean Institute of Tuberculosis, Jubilee Medical center for Immigrates, Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Health Community Center of Yeong-In.   Each of these locations provided a wealth of information about Korea's public and community health system. 

 

Towards the end of my 10 weeks stay, I had an opportunity to join a group of nursing and medical students from Yonsei University on an annual trip to a farming village.  The purpose of these yearly trips is to provide  medical services to the villagers.  The organizers decided that a second visit would be made to the neighboring villages surrounding the edges of Jin-Ju city.   Our main group was split into two teams.   The first team maintained the temporary medical clinic and the  second group  made "home" visits. I was part of 4-paired teams that went out and made house visits.  Each pair had basic medical supplies so that we could take blood pressures and get glucose readings.  I was partnered with a first year medical student. It was hard work, mostly because we had to walk from home to home in a very hot and humid weather. I learned a great deal.  I found the experience  to be very rewarding.  I enjoyed helping the people in their own surroundings.  Fortunately,  with my limited Korean, and help of my teammate SooYoung, I was able converse with the people fairly well. 

 

Most people we saw were over 60 years old.  We found out that most of the young folks left the villages to seek out work in the neighboring cities.  It appears that most go to Seoul.  A  large number of people we saw had high blood pressures and glucose readings.  We instructed these people to visit our temporary clinic site, where the doctors and nurses can provide a more thorough evaluation and if needed medications.  I found many similarities between caring for the elderly in  Jin-Ju  and Baltimore.  Occupants of the villages and Baltimore have high incidences of high blood pressure and glucose levels.   Residence in both areas faced the same kinds of challenges. For example, the elderly in the villages and in Baltimore face not having the means or support of a family member to take them to the nearest hospital.  I suspect their continuing challenges to make healthcare affordable to all will be growing issue in the near future.

 

This kind of experience was one in a lifetime.  I'm thankful to all the helpful members of Yonsei University College of Nursing, Yonsei Medical Centers, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing of making this possible, and to all the great mentors out there, who shared their "know-how" to a newbie like me.

-EunJoo An, Student