MUSC Physician Assistant encourages students and faculty to get involved in global medicine

By Janie Thomas

View More Photos

Megan Fulton, PA-C, M.P.A.S. is not afraid to take on new challenges. It was on a trip to Belize that she discovered her love for medical missions and decided to beat a new path by becoming a Physician Assistant (PA). “Belize was the perfect place to start out the medical mission experience,” Fulton said. “That trip was the foundation in becoming involved with medical missions and becoming a PA.”

Fulton serves as a PA in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), an adjunct professor for the PA program, and a member of the Faculty Senate at MUSC. After Fulton’s trip to Belize, her heart was set on experiencing more of the world, so she traveled to several continents and mastered a second language. When the earthquake of 2010 shook Haiti to its knees, she was one of the first to offer her medical skills to the country crippled by the disaster. “We left about two weeks after the earthquake hit,” said Fulton. “At the time, there were no incoming commercial flights into Haiti. We found private charters that flew to Haiti from Charleston with one leg of the trip in the Bahamas, where we met up with a medical mission team from the hospital there.”

She traveled with a Charleston medical team led by Shane Woolf, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at MUSC. For seven days, the team began their work at six o’clock in the morning and did not slow down until eleven o’clock at night. They set up clinic in Hospital Lumiere in Bonne Fin, Haiti, and saw roughly 90 patients each day. Her 17-hour workdays were spent assisting Dr. Woolf in surgery and working alongside one of the nurses to “run the floor”, including rounding on patients, debriding wounds, changing bandages, pain management, and organizing the pharmacy created by donations from the U.S.

While 17-hour days sound exhausting, Fulton would do it again in a heartbeat. “You end up getting more as the provider than you give to the folks that you’re treating because it’s such a learning experience and people are so appreciative,” said Fulton. The lessons that come from investing your time and skills into another community in response to a natural disaster are endless. Through her service in Haiti, she was reminded to “be open to other people’s surrounding issues, whether it is medical, family or financial, and always be very sensitive to that.”

Fulton also stresses the need for patience in a disaster relief situation. The pace of life varies depending on where you are around the globe. “It’s neat to work through challenges that each medical system faces because it makes you a stronger provider in the long run,” Fulton remarked. “Students learn how to be very flexible when they are on a medical mission. You become rigid in study habits and in how you do things, so medical missions shake things up.”

Fulton encourages students and faculty at MUSC to be involved in global medical missions and disaster relief response. The learning that comes from getting out of your comfort zone is essential to understanding “the great divide” between the United States and less developed countries. It increases your appreciation for what we have here, and it increases awareness of what many countries around the globe must overcome to provide medical services. When asked how to make global medical missions and disaster response part of your life as a student or faculty member at MUSC, Fulton responded, “Be upfront with your interest in disaster relief travels, learn the policy your program or unit holds regarding international travel during the school year or workweek, and get your travel vaccines well in advance!

When working overseas on a medical mission, health professionals are able to devote all their time and energy to seeing patients, which is an enjoyable break from the administrative responsibilities that consume clinical hours in the states. “The compassion fatigue that so often plagues healthcare professionals in the United States is replaced with a refreshed and renewed sense of why you entered this profession in the first place,” Fulton said. “Even though you are going to a stressful place like Haiti, even though you are working so many long hours, the fatigue disappears because of the sole need of those patients. There is only one agenda on the medical mission and that is to do your best and get the patients better.”

Janie Thomas is an intern in MUSC Center for Global Health