Medical school forges closer ties with Belize
It’s an institution of higher learning that hundreds of Belizeans drive by each day without knowing it’s there. Located in the Bally Gardens subdivision off the Northern Highway, the Belize Medical College is one of a number of facilities located throughout the Caribbean and Central America. Collectively, they are known as “offshore” medical schools; places where otherwise qualified applicants who were not admitted to the small number of slots in U.S. universities, can still pursue their dreams of becoming an M.D. This morning News 5’s Jacqueline Woods visited the campus for a check-up.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Since 1996, the Belize Medical College has been offering basic courses to students from a number of countries. The training is for four years, but because Belize lacks clinical resources, the students only do eight months of their studies in the country before completing the programme at other affiliated colleges in Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom.
One of the fields of study offered at the college is anatomy, where the students not only learn about the human body from books, but actually get to dissect the real thing. The cadavers, which have been preserved, are those of deceased individuals who have offered their bodies to science. The lab exercise is critical to the student’s education and the college has introduced a new system to strengthen the programme.
Today, Minister of Health Joe Coye, officially opened an E-Study Centre that is a state of the art electronic programme. Students will now be able to go online and access information on whatever lab exercise was conducted. College Director, Dr. Murall Rudraraju, says the programme contains six thousand coloured photographs, illustrations and over five thousand multiple choice questions that will test the students on just how well they did in class.
Dr. Murall Rudraraju, Director, Belize Medical College
“Our school has been following the traditional methods of teaching in anatomy, physiology and so on. Our labs are well equipped with the implementation of the e-study. Basically, it would take us on par with the pioneer educational institutions around the world. The e-study centre is state of the art technology.”
Aleena Truesdale, a student from the United States, says she is impressed with the programme and believes it will help her studies because there are far more resources now available to them.
Aleena Truesdale, Student, Belize Medical College
“Basically, we just had to go on memorisation from the lab, and we would go back to the text books, which was not a real cadaver, so it’s kind of hard to associate what we actually see on the cadaver and what’s in the book. So it was based on memorisation and the next day we would go on to another area, so it was kind of difficult if we didn’t study it thoroughly the first day.”
Initially, the programme will be offered to only the students but local physicians as well will soon be able to access the information. Minister Coye says the college has promised to give the access codes to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and PAHO.
Joe Coye, Minister of Health
“Well as part of our whole health sector reform, we know how important it is to build on the human resource side. We are in the process of building infrastructures and equipment, but there is a serious shortage of the human resource in terms of doctor and nurses. So the more opportunities we can have for this kind of training, certainly Belize welcomes it.”
The college which, enrols no more than twenty students per term, including Belizeans, is about to embark on a massive expansion programme that will benefit both faculty and students and improve the college’s infrastructure.
Dr. Murall Rudraraju
“We are going to have a new building across from our current facility right across the street. We are projecting a completion in the early year of 2003, the entire facility. Then we are also looking at developing new courses down here.”
The Belize Medical College offers at least one scholarship per term to Belizeans and Dr. Rudraraju says they are working to increase those numbers. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
School officials say that they are in the process of building a stronger working relationship with the Ministry of Health.
