Filip Dabrowski

When I arrived at Schiphol International Airport I didn’t have the slightest idea what to expect from the Netherlands. I was so confused that questions like Do they have duty free coffee shops? and Do they have cars, or only bikes? were chasing each other in my head. It was the first day of my summer holidays; the Sunday sun was shining merrily in the sky. I picked up my bag and went out to discover Amsterdam.

 

Next morning, nine o’clock, I started my internship at the endocrinology department of the Vrije Universiteit Medisch Centrum (VUmc). I crossed the enormous bike-parking-lot to meet my student tutor and start one of the biggest adventures of my life. 

I always regarded Dutch medicine with respect, but what I saw that morning was much better than I ever imagined. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. After I got an electronic photo ID-card I tried on the white coats emblazoned with the VUmc logo, which are tailored differently for doctors, nurses and other staff members. This system allows everyone to recognize each other’s position immediately, and no one has to wear coats from pharmaceutical companies.

 

But I could not take my new coat with me! A few moments later my tutor explained to me how to use the ATM-like machines in the corridors. 

Every morning you just hold your ID card up to the scanner, and pick up a freshly laundered coat! 

 

I started my internship in the endocrinology laboratory, discovering technical and scientific innovations. What I enjoyed most was the big role students have in scientific work. Every Dutch medical student, after his fourth year at university, joins a research team for three months. After completing this research project, clinical rotations begin. After more than four years of theoretical classes he can finally touch a patient! I finally understood why my Dutch friends were so jealous of me – I saw my first patient two years earlier!

After the laboratory work I started at the outpatient clinic. When I saw the waiting room full of patients, suddenly I felt at home. Someone was reading an old magazine; someone else was taking coffee from the machine… But wait! Coffee was free! These little things set Dutch medicine so far ahead of other countries. What’s more, I was simply dazed by the variety of cases in everyday’s practice! An eighty-four-year-old acromegalic came twenty kilometres on his bike to the doctor’s office. When I thought that nothing could surprise me anymore, I was invited to attend the ‘gender clinic’. Although I don’t consider myself a very conservative person, consulting my first patient there was probably the largest culture shock of my life. A thirty year old male-to-female came for a control visit during ‘hers’ hormone therapy. If that was all, I could have kept my professional face without any troubles, but it turned out that (s)he had brought her seven-year-old son along.  

 

I spent one week assisting doctors in the internal medicine ward in the hospital. This time I thought that it would be similar to the departments in Polish hospitals. Again, I couldn’t be more wrong! 

Clinical rounds do not start at eight, but around ten in the morning, and before visiting the patients, the doctor listens to a report of a nurse who took care of the patient during the night. I like this system very much, and it works well for training new doctors, too. 

 

Although these first impressions might sound hilarious, at the beginning I was completely confused. Luckily, this state changed quickly when my tutor showed me the city, gave thousands of tips and introduced me to other exchange students. Together we discovered eve­ry nook and photographed every stone in Amsterdam! Yet, even if the Leidseplein life means nothing to you, you simply have to try to leave work early to survive… Almost every shop (except maybe ‘smart’ ones), most of the museums and all offices close at five p.m., which was typically the time that I would leave the hospital. Sometimes I got the impression that doctors have to take a day off to buy shoes or buy groceries!  

 

My only regret is that I didn’t buy the bulb of the blue tulip – I guess it means that someday I have to come back to the Netherlands!

 

Photo © by Amfion Fotoshoots (Antonette de Groot-Klootwijk), photos for Global Medicine only, all rights reserved.