“Partnerships like this one provide valuable opportunities for students to gain international experience in the public health field, and serve an important role in less privileged communities,” said Robert Buckingham, executive director, SPH. “By being involved at the grass roots level, students get a firsthand sense of how their work makes a difference in peoples’ lives.”

Over the next five years, the school will provide up to 10 health practicum and research opportunities per year to U of S graduate students for a period of one to 12 months each. Students will be given an opportunity to rotate through the clinic’s wellness centre, pharmacy, dental clinic, primary care clinic, nutrition centre and maternal/child centre, offering their clinical and public health expertise in support of Clinica Esperanza’s mission.

“This Clinica Esperanza partnership with the University of Saskatchewan will be a wonderful opportunity for students in pharmacy, nutrition and other programs across campus to develop practice skills and contribute to essential patient care in an international interprofessional experience” said David Hill, dean, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition and vice chair of the Council of Health Sciences Deans.

Built entirely with donations and volunteer labour, Clinica Esperanza sees over 75 patients per day – regardless of whether they are able to pay. With over 120 medical volunteers recruited from countries around the globe, Clinica Esperanza arguably provides the best care available to the local residents of Roatan and is the busiest non-governmental medical facility in the Bay Islands.

The SPH, which experienced an increase in registration of over 400 per cent from 2009-2010 to 2010-2011, offers innovative opportunities for graduate education, community service, public health research and programming.

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For more information, contact:

Erica Schindel, School of Public Health
University of Saskatchewan
Tel: (306) 966-2663
Email: erica.schindel@usask.ca