Global Health Institute Field Scholars

Community Health and Primary Care Rotation in San Jose, Costa Rica

Danielle Jackson, Emory Physician Assistant Program, Emory University School of Medicine

Ms. Jackson is a student in Emory's Physician Assistant Program at the Emory University School of Medicine. As a Global Health Institute Field Scholar, she conducted an urban community-based primary care rotation with the non-governmental organization, International Health Central American Institute (IHCAI), located in San Jose, Costa Rica. She participated in clinical work with local medical teams in outpatient family practice-oriented clinics and the inpatient internal medicine and pediatric teams in a hospital. Ms. Jackson also had access to the emergency department and was on call during her four-week rotation. She attended case reports and/or conferences for the service in which she was assigned as well as community work meetings.

As part of her global learning program experience, Ms. Jackson also conducted home, school, and work visits as they were needed to provide immunizations, child health and development assessments, prenatal care, and chronic disease management and health education consultations. Additionally, she participated in weekly tutorials in Spanish on how the health care system of Costa Rica operates. These tutorials covered topics such as grieving, sexual history taking, and mental health status assessments.

To read Ms. Jackson's account of her field scholar experience, please click here. You can see pictures she took during her field scholar work below.

Back to 2007 Global Health Institute Scholars List