Sara Eftekhar (UBC Nursing 2) interviews Dr. Richard Currie about his experiences as a physician involved in global health work.
“I know why I am here. I come because the work is meaningful; because the people are so generous; because when it comes to “life” and “living” there is so much here to learn. I com e because I love a good yam, because napping after lunch is the only civilized way to work, and because goats are more pleasant to listen to than a lawnmower.” From Dr. Currie’s blog on his MSF trip to Central Africa Republic.
Dr. Currie’s blogs are recognizable on the Global Health Website as he has written about his experiences in Peru and Central Africa Republic. Dr. Currie has an impressive background in Global Health and has worked in countries like Vietnam, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia and Central Africa Republic.
A graduate of Queen’s University medical school with a completed residency in rural family medicine at UBC in Kelowna, Dr. Currie is currently living and working in Salmon Arm, BC heading the local Emergency room and sharing a family practice while continuing to travel abroad for occasional missions overseas.
To Dr. Currie, global health means “anything that addresses the global inequalities in access to health.” He explains “We live in a world of shocking inequality: millions of children in the developing world die every year of routine diarrheal diseases, a cause of death that is completely unimaginable in North America. Global Health initiatives tackle not only the very practical aspects of preventing illness (donating medical supplies, establishing medical clinics, training or providing health care personnel) but, more importantly, work to identify and address the underlying causes for such astounding inequality: systemic poverty, lack of education, political neglect and apathy.”
Dr. Currie’s first international work as a medical student was working at in rural eastern Ghana and then worked in Vietnam. Dr. Currie left these experiences with a new sense of awareness of what it meant to practice medicine in another country and felt that he had a lot more to learn in order to be helpful abroad. Dr. Currie’s primary experiences in Vietnam and Ghana motivated him to learntropical medicine at the University of Arizona which eventually lead him to work in Vancouver in the fields of HIV, TB, and at the Bridge (refugee) Clinic.
When working abroad, Dr. Currie mostly focuses his time and energy at the local hospital because bedside care, teaching, as well his training in tropical medicine as a physician are what he believes his best skills are and what he feels he can contribute the most to in an international community. However, Dr. Currie does value the work of community developers that focus on education and empowerment which he acknowledges as being more important for a community in the long run.
In 2007, Dr. Currie joined Médecins Sans Frontières where he has worked in in an HIV and Malnutrition hospital in north western Ethiopia along the border with Sudan and as a team leader for a tertiary referral hospital in Central Africa Republic.
“The real privileges of working with a large multidisciplinary organization such as Médecins Sans Frontières [is that] each individual member of the team brings a unique skill set. Working in a supportive team environment allows each of us to focus on what he or she does best. There are no quick or easy fixes in international health – everything is interrelated and having a multidisciplinary team based approach (physicians, nurses, humanitarian affairs, water and sanitation engineers, counsellors and psychologists, logistics and management) is essential to making an effective difference.”
Dr. Currie believes that working as a physician abroad has helped his work in Canada because when working in challenging environments, health care professionals learn to adapt quickly to their environment and “do much more with much less”, a skill which is proven to be “relevant in the Canadian context of sky-rocketing public health care costs”. Also, Dr. Currie explains that “for a physician in particular, watching our international colleagues in the allied health professions work creatively and independently — without physician support or oversight – gives one a new perspective on the amazing capabilities of nurses, therapists, and other allied health professionals – resources that I think we grossly underutilize here in Canada. “
Thus, Dr. Currie encourages health care students to part take in Global Health activities that don’t necessarily involve traveling to a developing country. According to Dr. Currie, “There is so much that can be done to alleviate the root causes of health care inequality – namely systemic poverty and political neglect – that can be accomplished through local initiatives and political action. Arguably these kinds of initiatives are far, far more important than simply traveling to the developing world to provide direct health care to a select group of recipients. This need not be time intensive or complicated: it can be as simple and personal as choosing to purchase fair trade products, or making small financial donations to support worthwhile organizations. Even just talking about these issues with friends and neighbours can be extremely helpful: these shocking discrepancies in global access to health cannot continue, and would not be so easily accepted, except in a context of general apathy.”
Currently, Dr. Currie is helping develop teaching projects in Peru for students on behalf of the UBC Division of Global Health but he never really knows what’s next for him because a lot of his international work came to him as a surprise. Dr. Currie feels that his journey as a physician “has been far too rewarding and fulfilling to give up now and sadly – despite considerable progress – the needs are still urgent and personally compelling.”