How International Service Shaped A DO’s Path

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A few weeks in unfamiliar clinics can change a career. Emma joins us to share how three undergraduate service trips—Belize, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua—steered her toward osteopathic medicine, shaped her values in family practice, and sharpened the tools she uses daily with patients and students. We compare the realities of MD and DO training in the United States, spotlighting the additional musculoskeletal and osteopathic manipulative treatment skills that drew her to a more hands-on, whole-person approach.

We talk plainly about what global service actually teaches: resourcefulness when there are no labs, humility when culture and systems differ by country, and the power of house visits to reveal social determinants you’ll never see from a clinic chair. Emma reflects on language access—from the confidence of working Spanish in Belize to the limits of phone interpreters in residency—and why in-person interpretation restores nuance, trust, and clinical accuracy. She also explains how faith shows up differently abroad and at home, and how chaplains help patients navigate the hardest conversations with care.

For students mapping their path, Emma offers practical steps: how to seek shadowing, why rejection is part of the process, and how service—local or global—builds judgment and resilience. We explore the art of patient education in the age of search engines, the challenge of reassurance, and the grace of admitting what you don’t know while partnering with specialists. If you’re weighing DO versus MD, craving real-world experience, or seeking a more humane way to practice, this conversation delivers clarity and courage.

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Recommended Books:

1. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
2. The In-Between - Hadley Vlahos

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to not only share with you our guest’s introduction to international healthcare, but also to share with you how that exposure to international healthcare has shaped their future path in healthcare. As true patient advocates, we should all aspire to be as well rounded as possible in order to meet the needs of our diverse patient populations.


As a 45+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with my students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that healthcare focused students need, and greatly benefit from the opportunity to have hands-on experiential healthcare experiences in an international setting! I have seen the growth of students post travel as their self-confidence in their newly acquired skillsets, both clinical and cultural, facilitates their ability to take advantage of opportunities that previously may not have been available to them. By rendering care internationally, and stepping outside one's comfort zone, many more doors of opportunity will be opened.


Feel free to check out our website at www.islonline.org, follow us on Instagram @ islmedical, and reach out to me @ [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])