Peru has the outdated healthcare industry of a still-developing country. While healthcare professionals attempt to keep pace with the advances of modern medicine, there are massive amounts of Peruvians who do not have access to absolute basic healthcare. IFRE's internship projects in Peru place interested medical/healthcare professionals to support the often-intimidating front line of medicine and healthcare in a developing country.

Healthcare project interns in Peru 's can expect to supply beyond the “know-how” of their training (no matter how in-depth or basic), but can also expect to share their proactive attitude and innate abilities. In the battle against various diseases, thought obsolete or remedied in western countries there is a shortage of supplies and resources. There are limited flu shots and things as simple as antibiotics are in short supply. Medical/healthcare interns are greatly welcomed in these projects to share their time, knowledge, skills and support with the immensely challenged Peru healthcare industry.

PROJECT AT A GLANCE

Location: Cusco and Urubamba Start point: Cusco End Point: Cusco Duration: 2-12 weeks Hours: 30-40 hours per week Food: Local meals (3 times a day) Room: Homebase or host family Date: First and Third Monday of each month

Beginner to intermediate knowledge of Spanish is preferred (not mandatory) . If you cannot speak Spanish, we suggest you enroll in our Spanish language course to make your stay more rewarding – both for you and for the children you are helping. Applicants interested in joining our internship health program must possess healthcare certification, such as an ID as a medical student, EMT, paramedic certification, nursing or physician's credentials. We do not permit interns without medical credentials to work in this program due to the potential risk. The projects require a copy of interns' resumes, clearly documenting credentials and education, before arrival at the project. Projects will also require an official copy of credentials.

Job responsibilities for medical project interns/interns in Peru vary dependent on education, skills, experience and qualifications and on the community's current needs. Interns could be delivering babies, suturing wounds or giving vaccinations. Some interns may also be asked to support public health campaigns.

As a medical intern in Peru , interns could be placed in a large hospital or small clinic. Most of the hospitals (regardless of size) have many departments, like western hospitals, so an intern may be placed in any department dependent on skills, qualifications and training.

Most interns placed in Cusco projects stay at our home base – a permanent home set aside for international interns and manned with a local staff. Our home base provides a same-gender shared room and shared bathroom with running hot water and a “western” style toilet. Interns will have the ability to do laundry at the home base. Interns receive three prepared meals per day. If interns will be out of the house during lunch hour, interns can request a lunch "to go" that interns can take with interns or eat out. Meals are cuisine, which is traditional to Peru .

Our Cusco home base is located in the center of beautiful Cusco city. Most of our interns' projects are located within 2-5 miles of the home base. Therefore, interns can simply walk to their projects or take a local taxi. Most necessary services for travelers are located within 2 km of the homebase: internet cafés, restaurants and grocery stores.

Occasionally, depending on intern traffic, available projects or distance to an intern's assigned project, we may also place our interns with carefully pre-screened host families. Our host families are socially respected and experienced hosts of international interns. They have strong interest in our interns' safety and well-being and demonstrate this with caution and care. In most host family situations, interns will share a room with another intern of the same gender. Interns receive three meals a day. Our host families do not offer laundry services, but some will happily take up the task for a small fee. This is up to interns to negotiate upon arrival. If interns choose to do their own laundry, most families are happy to let interns use their washbasins where interns wash by hand then line-dry their clothes.

Throughout the internship project, our local staff stays in contact with interns either with face-to-face visits or via email/telephone. Interns are always welcome at the local office in Cusco . If project placement is local, we request that interns stop by the office once a week to keep us posted on how they are doing with their home stay and project. If project placement is very far, then our local staff members maintain communication by either email and/or phone and try to visit every 2-4 weeks if possible.