A day in the Scottish Highlands

Author: Amber Sale | Major: Psychology | Semester: Summer 2023

This summer during the August Intersession I studied abroad in Scotland and England through the U of A Faculty-Led program Global & Historical Perspective of Health. I chose this program because I am a pre-med student and wanted to learn about what qualities make a healthcare system effective—both in terms of patient outcome and cost. Attending this program helped advance my academic and professional goals, not only by increasing my knowledge of healthcare but also by exposing me to people of different backgrounds and cultures. Having experience communicating with individuals who have a variety of diverse backgrounds is incredibly important for a healthcare professional. As a doctor, I will need to be able to effectively treat patients with cultural, lingual, and religious identities that are different from mine. Not only did this study abroad program help give me this experience, but it also taught me the importance of providing individualized care. In addition to this, I also became more aware of the benefits of holistic and preventative healthcare. In the UK there is a larger focus on utilizing alternative forms of treatment before medicine, such as social prescribing. Social prescribing allows healthcare professionals to prescribe things like sports, crafting, and gardening as treatments, which have all been shown to improve patient outcomes. I learned so much from this program, and one of the reasons for this was the way in which we were taught. Rather than learn in a classroom setting, we learned through experiencing by visiting museums, going on walking tours, and listening to guest speakers. The vast majority of the course’s material was taught to us by tour guides and museum employees, and our instructors mainly acted to provoke discussion and reflection of the things we were learning. I personally found this method of teaching to be very beneficial, as it forced me to critically analyze the things we were learning.

While on the program we had two free days, one of which I spent in Edinburgh with some of the other students in the program. The day we visited Edinburgh happened to be the first day of a month-long international festival called the Fringe Festival. This is the largest performing arts festival in the world, which meant that the city was very crowded and full of a multitude of fun, exciting things to see and do. We had an amazing time in Edinburgh trying new foods, looking at the beautiful historic architecture, and watching various performances. Some of the other students and I even got to visit Victoria Street, which is said to have been the inspiration for JK Rowling’s Diagon Alley in Harry Potter.

Attending this study abroad program was an amazing opportunity, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to other students. Through this program I was able to gain valuable teamwork and communication skills that will not only help to benefit me in my college career, but also in my future professional career as a physician. I was able to learn about the most effective ways to treat a variety of patients as well as the steps we can take to make healthcare more equitable. I now believe that practicing medicine in a more holistic way creates a better healthcare system, both working to improve patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness. I highly recommend this study abroad program to anyone interested in healthcare, as it gave me skills, knowledge, experiences, and memories that will last a lifetime.