I think it's important for pharmacists to go abroad for a number of reasons. And so one, and I'll answer this from a global health role, when you look at the average annual income of patients, it's less than $4,000 a year and sometimes many times less than $1,000 a year. And so that's kind of what makes it a global health opportunity is that limited access to health care. And when you look at those types of settings, there are a few health care workers there are very limited access to medications and supplies. And so I think, when you look at the United States, pharmacists have had a huge impact on patient outcomes, regardless of the of the setting, and so I think pharmacists have a really important role that they can play within that setting as well.

So here at Gatton, you know, we have a mission that acknowledges developing progressive team oriented pharmacists with an emphasis on rural and underserved. And so, with that I've had the opportunity to precept students on generally one or two advanced pharmacy practice experiences, so that's a fourth year rotation. Each year, we've had 15 different APPEs in eight different countries and nearly 60 students have traveled. The reality of it is there's so much that you can learn in the global health environment around cultural competency and thinking on your feet and, you know, their disease states that, you know, may be different. But a lot of times it's also disease states that we see no matter where we care for patients, but we see a bigger disparity. And learning how to care for them with that bigger disparity, just as so much for your career as a pharmacist.

I also think when you look at our student body, many of our students are coming from rural and underserved areas within our country. Global health is not just limited to those those countries with less than $4,000 a year income. And so we have similar areas in the United States. So I think that they can take things that they learned from that type of opportunity and apply it to the patients where, in our rural communities within the United States, where there's limited access to medical professionals, limited access to medications and supplies. Right now we send about eight students abroad internationally each year to Debrecen, Hungary, four students to Ireland and then also two students to the Robert Borden University in Scotland. And so those students spend typically a month overseas, and then come back hopefully with a better understanding of the healthcare system within the country where they're practicing, but also a better understanding of our health care system within the United States. And so that's the goal of that opportunity. We also send about 12 to 14 students abroad each year for global health opportunities. So we have a global health outreach rotation and a global health initiatives rotation. The global health outreach, rotation is typically more of a missions opportunity, where students spend about one to two weeks out of the year out on rotation. For that, places where students have gone recently include Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, most recently this past summer.

My global experience was to Guatemala City, Guatemala, the third week of May. We went through GHO, which is a branch of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. So there was five of us from Gatton including myself that went. We stayed in a guest house there in Guatemala City. And then we had four different vans that took about 30 Americans to clinic each day. We had two different clinics, so we had one at a Christian school, in Guatemala City. And then we had another one out of Alinea, which is basically a step up from the ghetto in Guatemala City. And that's where a lot of prostitutes work. So we had a clinic there for them as well. So as a healthcare professional first stepping foot in Guatemala City, like off the airplane, my first experience was that it's different in the US. My very, very first experience was there was no air conditioning in the airport, so that was different. From the healthcare world, pharmacy there is very different than it is here. So here we have to have prescriptions to obtain and prescription medication. There, you really just walk into a pharmacy that's much smaller than a community pharmacy here, you tell the pharmacist what your symptoms are, and kind of what you're looking for, and they make a recommendation for you. There are some things that have to be prescription based in Guatemala, but it's not near as much as the US and they also have a lot less medications on formulary there than we do in the US. So I think this experience definitely shaped me to be a better healthcare provider here. It makes you think outside of the box.

Yes. My global experience, again, was the first part the first two students to go over to Robert Gordon University, which was in Aberdeen, Scotland. Just did it because there's going to be a unique opportunity. I've never been overseas before, across the pond. Got to see all across Scotland. That was fantastic. So Loch Ness, just took some fantastic photos that always remember that experience. This really provides an outside perspective especially if you're, you know, trying to look into go into, you know, a unique leadership position as well. Again, the more you kind of have a well rounded experience, I think that kind of just really complements everything that your education is really providing here. Again, that's when you do rotations across, you know, all the different hospitals, community settings, long term care. It really kind of helps kind of put that into that whole repertoire of experiences just again, make you a well rounded individual.