BUTARO, Rwanda — Arlene Nishime was a newly minted medical doctor in her early twenties when she began interning at a district hospital in her native Rwanda. Such assignments are a standard requirement for those leaving medical school, but her training had left her unprepared for what she saw.
Like so many other medical professionals working in the lowest resource settings, Nishime quickly realized her job entailed “more than medicine.” Providing medicine to patients without access to clean water or nutritious food can be frustratingly ineffective. And that’s when the drugs are even available to distribute.
Those are the circumstances facing health care workers serving most of humanity. According to the World Health Organization, half of the world’s population lacks access to essential medical care.