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PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Medical Fellows
Each year since 1979, The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship has selected four senior medical students to spend three months working as Schweitzer Fellows at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon on clinical rotations. Fellows work as junior physicians, supervised by Schweitzer Hospital medical staff. Fellows generally spend the full rotation on either the Pediatrics or Medicine service.
Public Health Fellows
The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship selects and sends up to two Public Health Fellows to serve at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. Public Health Fellows work with the Hospital’s Community Health Outreach Program, which provides village-based health care, including maternal/child health, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, TB education and follow-up, and malaria prevention and treatment. Involvement in one or more outreach projects of the Hospital’s world-renowned Medical Research Unit (www.lambarene.org) may be possible.
Medical and Public Health Fellows
The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship provides complete funding for Fellows (airfare, room, board, immunizations). Previous Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellows have received academic credit for their experience according to their school''s policy. Many Fellows have found their three months to be among the most valuable of their profession training, and several have reported that their lives and career plans have been changed in major ways by their experiences in Lambaréné. Upon returning, Fellows will join a network of over 1,700 Lambaréné and U.S. Schweitzer Fellows – the Fellows for Life network – who are dedicated to maintaining service in their personal and professional lives.
TIME PERIOD
Medical Fellows: Two Fellows serve from May 1, 2009 - July 31, 2009 and two serve from August 1, 2009 - October 31, 2009. Dates are not flexible. Students who cannot guarantee full participation during these dates should not apply.
Public Health Fellows: Lambaréné Schweitzer Public Health Fellows must be able to spend a minimum of three consecutive months between May 1 and October 31, 2009. Longer stays, including extending beyond October 31, may be possible. Students who cannot guarantee full participation during these dates should not apply.
ELIGIBILITY
Medical Fellows: All medical students are eligible to apply, however priority may be given students from schools affiliated with the U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs (Baltimore, Bay Area, Chicago, Houston/Galveston, Greater Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, NH/VT, New Orleans, North Carolina, or Pittsburgh). Students must have completed their third year, and fluency in French is required.
Public Health Fellows: Students or recent graduates in graduate-level degree programs in public health or a related discipline that includes significant public health training, such as nursing, pharmacy, dental medicine, and social work. Priority may be given students and graduates from schools affiliated with the U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs (Baltimore, Bay Area, Chicago, Houston/Galveston, Greater Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, NH/VT, New Orleans, North Carolina, or Pittsburgh). Fluency in French is required.
FELLOWSHIP REQUIREMENTS
1. Complete three full months of service during the dates specified.
2. Attend an overnight orientation retreat in New Hampshire April 18-19, 2009
3. Submit monthly reports and shorter mid-month updates by email during the rotation
4. Submit a five to ten page final report documenting and reflecting on your experience within 60 days of return to the United States.
5. Publicize the work of the Schweitzer Hospital, and health care in Africa more generally, and recruit potential new Fellows through a presentation at your school about your experience at Lambaréné.
6. Help plan and lead the orientation of new Fellows in spring 2010.
SKILLS/EXPERIENCE
Medical Fellows:
1. Because all patient encounters occur in French, a functional fluency of that language is absolutely essential.
2. Prior completion of clerkships in medicine, pediatrics, and surgery are required.
3. Some background or coursework in tropical medicine or parasitology is important but not a prerequisite.
Public Health Fellows:
1. Because all public health work occur in French, a functional fluency of that language is absolutely essential.
2. Strong public health background
3. Previous international experience is highly desirable but not required.
To Apply: The application deadline for the 2008 Fellowship year has passed. To apply for 2009 please check back in the fall.
Deadline: Applications for the 2009 Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellows Program must be completed by December 15, 2008.
Interviews: The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship will interview qualified candidates in Boston in January 2009. Conversations in French will be part of the interview.
For questions contact:
Devon Reber, MSW
330 Brookline Avenue (BR)
Boston, MA 02215
T:(617) 667-1526 F:(617) 667-7989
dreber@bidmc.harvard.edu
Perspectives from Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellows:
"This fellowship has changed my life… I cannot adequately express my gratitude for the life-altering experience that was this fellowship. Completely against my expectations, I did find my own Lambaréné, rather than visiting someone else’s."
- Ethel Weld, Lambaréné Fellow
"This experience will certainly serve as a reminder of fragility and inequality of life…a reminder that health care is not a privilege but a basic human right. Schweitzer’s “reverence for life” philosophy serves as a perpetual example of how a single individual truly actualized humanism and love in this world and he didn’t even begin until he was well into his 30’s."
-Benjamin Gilmer, Lambaréné Fellow
"My interest in community health has been strengthened. I was impressed with the work of the Protection Maternelle-Infantile, and enjoyed my time working directly with the villagers to prevent disease before it happened. Overall, the experience reinforced my sense that my natural intellectual interest lies in questions of public health, and I look forward to finding ways to combine my clinical work with an attention to larger societal determinants of health."
-Kohar Jones, Lambaréné Fellow
"Towards the end of my stay, I started to envy the German researchers for their opportunity to stay in Gabon for nine months or more. I simply did not want to leave. Had I been given the chance to extend my stay, I would have taken it without hesitation. It is still not entirely clear to me why I found my daily work in Gabon so gratifying. Seeing children get better, parents’ gratitude and learning to trust my clinical instincts certainly played a role. As a consequence, I can easily picture myself in similar settings in years to come."
- Elizabeth Shae Whitacre, Lambaréné Fellow
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Is the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) a teaching hospital? Is education of students a priority?
A. No, HAS is not a teaching hospital, and teaching/mentoring visiting students is not a core part of the job description of the medical staff. Most of the doctors have no formal training as educators, and the teaching/mentoring they provide is out of their generosity. Many Schweitzer Fellows have found the individual physicians wonderful teachers and mentors, and some have even found their supervising physician one of the most cherished mentors in all of medical school. But other Fellows have been frustrated that the doctor they worked with did not view teaching as a priority, and so Fellows’ learning has had to be largely self-directed.
Q. What rotations do medical Fellows do? Is there a choice?
A. Two Fellows serve for each of the three-month periods (May1-July 31; August 1-October 31). The bottom line is that Fellows work where the Medical Staff of the Hospital choose. This has almost always meant that one Fellow works the full three months in medicine and one Fellows works in pediatrics. It is vitally important that Fellows approach their assignments with a willingness to jump in and help wherever they are needed. Occasionally Fellows have worked in surgery, this is not common -- Fellows should not expect to be able to work in surgery. Experience has shown that the harder the Fellow works to try to help wherever/however needed, the more generous and flexible the physicians are about trying to make the learning experience as positive as possible.
Q. What cultural differences can I expect in Lambaréné?
A. We encourage Fellows to learn as much about the culture in Lambaréné as they can before leaving by talking with Fellows for Life (alumni) and researching Gabon. Virtually all Fellows who have not spent significant time in Africa find the culture in Lambaréné is very different from what they have experienced in the past. It is crucial that Fellows approach this culture with an open mind and non-judgmental attitude -- learning as much as they can and, even if the Fellow feels critical, trying to understand the roots of different cultural traits or individual attitudes or behaviors.
Q. How is Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s ethic Reverence of Life practiced at HAS?
A. HAS is a working hospital with many of the challenges common to health and human service facilities with limited resources around the world. While HAS continues to be dedicated to promoting Reverence for Life, the reality is that some of the staff sometimes exhibit behaviors that conflict with that ethic. Other staff, however, have struck Fellows as having an inspiring “Schweitzer spirit”.
Fellows expecting HAS to be a perfect oasis of Reverence for Life are likely to be disappointed. Some have even felt betrayed, even though at orientation the previous year’s Fellows try hard to paint an honest picture. Often Fellows who have been disappointed at ways in which HAS or some staff fall short of a full commitment to Reverence for Life come to realize that what is most important, and still possible, is to nurture one’s own commitment to Reverence for Life, which can become stronger and deeper in part because the Fellow realizes that it is so deeply needed, even in a place that bears Dr. Schweitzer’s name.
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