Students, Residents Can Aid a World in Need

The woman, an older American visiting Israel, fell as she stepped from a tour bus to enter the Tel Aviv airport. As the tour physician, FP Gary Morsch, M.D., of Bucyrus, Kan., had a choice: He could send her to the hospital, guaranteeing she would face the consequences of missing her flight, or he could rely on his own experience in disaster areas, war zones and poverty-stricken regions of Africa.

So he did what he had to do. He helped her climb onto a conveyor belt and sent her through the airport security X-ray equipment. The resulting radiograph confirmed a broken wrist.

"We got an excellent view, not only of her wrist but of her whole body," Morsch told residents and students during his Aug. 4 guest lecture at the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students here. With the information gained from the X-ray, Morsch could properly splint the arm and provide temporary relief until the woman could see her own physician back home in the United States.

His story's point: "Wherever you are, you can use your skills to make a difference, even if you don't have fancy … machinery." Family physicians, he says, have the training and expertise to provide medical care under almost any circumstances. Because of that, family medicine residents and medical students can effectively serve those in need throughout the world.

As a family physician and founder of the humanitarian organization Heart to Heart International, Morsch has focused on making a difference -- one person at a time -- throughout his career. To date, Heart to Heart, which works to improve health and help disaster victims worldwide, has served people in 57 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Morsch attributes his success to his passion for medicine and a philosophy adopted from Mother Teresa: "We can do no great things, only small things with great care." Morsch embraced that guiding principle after a day of carrying multiple buckets of garbage from Mother Teresa's Calcutta, India, hospice to the dump three blocks away.

"I'd come to Calcutta to do great things," he said, admitting to his initial irritation that a physician volunteer would be assigned such a job. "But it's not about me. It's not about my talents, my credentials, my certifications. It's about … my willingness to serve. It's about what you can do. Everyone can do something."

Morsch urged students and residents to capitalize on their youth and grasp opportunities to serve those in need -- whether in America or internationally. Citing the theme from the musical "Man of La Mancha," he called on his audience to dream the impossible dream and challenge conventional wisdom that discourages action.

"People say, 'You can't get into Beirut, you can't get into North Korea,'" but Heart to Heart recently has helped in both locations, said Morsch.

Service opportunities for students and residents abound. Students and residents can work in community-based free clinics or arrange for a rotation that takes them to the bush country of Africa or the jungles of Southeast Asia, said Morsch, adding fellowships, scholarships and grants for such options are available.

Among the best options, according to Morsch, is the Physicians With Heart program, a collaboration of the Academy, the AAFP Foundation and Heart to Heart in which volunteer physicians travel to former Soviet republics, delivering care, education, and donated pharmaceuticals, medical instruments and supplies. In October, Physicians With Heart will travel to Moldova, where medical students, residents, family physicians and other volunteers will teach, provide services, deliver supplies to hospitals and provide help to Cupkui Orphanage and Stella's House, a facility for young girls.

"Twenty-five years from now, you don't want to look back on your residency and think, 'I had the opportunity to go to Africa, the Middle East or South America, and I didn't go,'" said Morsch. "You're going to be kicking yourself."