DURHAM, N.C. – Brianna Hampton, a junior on the North Carolina Central University softball team, made the most of her summertime opportunities by completing a four-week internship to experience European healthcare on the Portuguese island of São Miguel with the Atlantis Project.
NCCU Now – A magazine for the faculty, staff, alumni and friends of North Carolina Central University – featured her travels and experience to Europe in the sports section of the recently released fall 2015 edition of the university’s publication.
Hampton was able to shadow doctors, explore different medical specialties, and see the European healthcare system from the inside with the Atlantis Project. Atlantis Fellows spend roughly 25 hours per week shadowing European doctors and also have the opportunity to improve language skills, contribute to the local community by teaching English, and discover the beauty and culture of Europe.
“It was a very comprehensive clinical experience for me and it was an eye opener to the realities of health care,” said Hampton. “I was able to learn about the Portuguese heath care system and the new technology on the island and how it compares to the technology in America, including how the doctor-patient relationship and even the economics are very different. A lot of patients don’t have to pay anything at all. The doctors, nurses and everyone in the hospital all get paid the same. Another difference was the sanitation. I didn’t know they were actually allowed to smoke in the hospitals.”
An internship with the Atlantis Project was ideal for Hampton, who is majoring in exercise sports science and minoring in biology at NCCU and plans to pursue either medical school or physician assistant school after graduating in Durham. In the United States it can be hard for people not already in medical school to shadow doctors due to HIPPA laws.
“I wasn’t allowed to touch anything,” commented Hampton. “I was only allowed to observe and ask questions. Some of the doctors were very engaging with me. They would explain every procedure step-by-step and I even had one doctor who would ask me questions afterwards to make sure I understood what she was talking about. But then I had some doctors that didn’t say that much. The doctors actually spoke English well. I even asked some of them if they were from the U.S. because of how well they spoke English.”
After following one doctor in gastroenterology the first week, Hampton was invited to watch a procedure that is only done in seven countries the following week.
Instead of teaching English like some other Atlantis Project Fellows do during their internship, Hampton actually helped a lot of the residents write reports. Hampton explained, “They wanted a lot of research that they had to be translated to English, so that was our way of teaching them. One of the major things we helped with was a group of doctors and their residents that had a patient in the ICU who was from America that they wanted to ship back because they couldn’t do a lot of procedures needed there. So we helped them translate the report to English to make it happen.”
Hampton batted .247 in 40 games for the Lady Eagles in 2015, playing mostly at first base in her sophomore season before departing for Portugal’s “Green Island” in early May right after the spring semester concluded. São Miguel is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores, located a little of 900 miles west of mainland Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean.
“I love traveling and this is the furthest I have traveled,” stated Hampton. “I’ve flown a lot but I have only traveled outside of the U.S. to Mexico for vacation before going on this trip. On the way there I had to stop in London. I plan to continue to travel and I really want to go to South and Central America and some parts of Africa and India. I hope to go to Peru soon.”
Hampton was part of one of the smallest groups to ever participate in the Atlantis Project with just four other Fellows. It provided great opportunities as a Fellow and allowed her to experience the Portuguese culture on the island away from the hospital.
With her free time, Hampton was able to participate on excursions a couple times each week, including a lot of hiking and site-seeing. She tried foods like octopus and shark, but her favorite was the sushi. She stayed in a dorm on campus but was able to explore most of the small island easily on foot or by taxi.
Two of her most memorable excursions was canyoning one day and swimming with dolphins another day.
Hampton added, “Canyoning was great because it was something I thought I would never do. Swimming with the dolphins was scary because we were under the assumption they were going to be in a Sea World environment, but we were actually in the middle of the ocean with wild, untrained dolphins.”
Hampton desired to participate in an internship this summer and discovered the Atlantis Project online after she decided she preferred a non-research program and that she had interest in traveling abroad. The program offers internships to Portugal and Spain and she applied for both. Hampton was offered a fellowship to Portugal and she was excited about the opportunity knowing she may eventually travel to Spain on her own in the future.
“It impacted me just because I am a pre-med student and usually you have your mind set on one thing but it really opened my views of different departments and specialties,” said Hampton. “That was the main benefit to actually see what goes on in the different specialties and kind of help my interests. I definitely now know I want to stay in the U.S. to work.
“I had a wonderful internship with the Atlantis Project,” said Hampton. “I really liked the island. I would recommend any overseas internship. Everything was pretty memorable for me and it was an overall great experience for me. It made me want to travel more, especially out of the country.
The Atlantis Project began as an organization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 2007-2008 academic year. Its founder, João Toste, then at UNC Charlotte, grew up in the Azores and saw an opportunity to start a program that would offer a uniquely valuable education abroad option for fellow students in a way that would contribute back to his home community. In its initial years, the AP offered internships in a variety of fields, including education and government; however, student demand, the quality of the hospital internship, and the potential of the significant impact of the hospital internship for pre-health students resulted in an organic movement to focus on providing hospital internships. Since 2012 the AP has been run by the St. Mary’s Institute for Educational Excellence, LLC.