The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

JUST the thought of being able to save a life or provide assistance to a loved one suffering from an illness was enough motivation for Shaunique Ferguson to enrol in medical school.

Now, after having completed five years of medical school in Cuba and a sixth in Guyana, all on a full scholarship, Shaunique has graduated with honours from the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana.

She received her Doctor in General Medicine degree, made the school’s gold list and received a gold award for achieving a GPA greater than 4.75.

“Being given the opportunity to study medicine in Cuba, and experiencing the daily satisfaction of helping others and being able to turn a frown into a smile was even more rewarding than I could have ever imagined,” the 27-year-old told Tribune Woman.

“The privilege of just sitting and talking with patients who yearn for a kind and listening ear and have them confide in you with their problems, or even right before a suicidal attempt, is sometimes all it takes to save a life. I was always interested in a profession that would allow me to be able to give back to the community by helping people in any way possible.”

Her greatest challenges in completing medical school included being separated from her family for so many years, settling in a foreign country with a different and rich culture, and having to fully adapt to a lifestyle that was the extreme opposite from what she was accustomed to. Additionally, she had to learn to speak a foreign language from Spanish professors who spoke little to no English.

Although at first sceptical about moving to Cuba, Shaunique said her mother, who is a firm believer of Jesus Christ, was her greatest supporter and encouraged her to seize the opportunity.

“I have learned so many things over the past six years in Cuba and my last year in Guyana; not only medicine, but the living experience taught me a lot also,” Shaunique said.

“I’ve learned not only to appreciate all that I have, but also what I don’t have and to learn to do without. We as Bahamians in our country are so blessed and highly favoured. It wasn’t until I travelled to Cuba that I truly understood and felt the true and literal meaning of the saying ‘You never miss the water until the well runs dry’. My experience there taught me patience, humility, strength, appreciation for the simplest things, independence, and so much more. It has given me an outlook on life that I never imagined having. For that I am so grateful to God and also to Fidel Castro Ruz for having granted me the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve one of my goals.”

There are numerous qualities one should acquire on the journey to becoming a good doctor, but for Shaunique the most important include acknowledging that nothing would be possible without God, being willing to sacrifice your youth, rest and social life while being buried in books, and being able to sympathise with patients, developing an adequate doctor-patient relationship.

Shaunique said the Latin American School of Medicine is structured in a way where a student can gain exposure in the medical field from the first year on, as opportunities are given to take part in certain minor procedures in Cuba’s public health clinics. There also walkabouts in the community during which students perform basic techniques (blood pressure checkups, updating patient/family histories, household interviews, educational/informative chats, and health/sickness investigations).

From her third until the final year, Shaunique completed rotations both at the hospitals and clinics in internal medicine, gynaecology and obstetrics, family medicine, paediatrics and surgery, as well as other subspecialities, with her favourite field being paediatrics due to her love for children.

Before being able to practice in the Bahamas, Shaunique will have to be officially licenced.

“As a foreign student graduating with a degree from the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba, it is accepted to practice everywhere else in the Caribbean, but unfortunately it is not accepted here in the Bahamas,” she said. “This means in order for me to be able to practice here I would have to first become licenced either by the United States, Canada or through the Caribbean Association of Medical Councils, which would require me to take a licencing exam – very costly by the way – but I’m preparing to do so in the near future.”

Shaunique said she has learned that one of the most pressing problems facing medicine today is the cost of services, not only for major life-saving procedures but minor procedures as well.

She said after studying in a country such as Cuba, which grants entirely free healthcare services to all of its people, it saddens her heart to know that other countries which are more prosperous are not willing to do the same.