In January and February 2026, my friend and I had the opportunity to attend Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town for a short-term student mobility via the Erasmus+ program. Cape Town was such a welcoming host city and offered so many attractions and activities. Whether swimming in Clifton, wine tasting at sunset in Constantia or watching the sunrise at Lion's Head, there is something for everyone. Spending a few weeks there really lets you join in and experience South African culture. This internship focused on the trauma front room and surgical parts of emergency treatment in paediatric patients. Cape Town and South Africa, in general, is a country with significantly more cases of penetrating trauma such as stab and gunshot wounds, making it a very popular destination for European medical professionals who want to learn here. The internship was very well coordinated due to excellent support from the sending and receiving organization. On our first day and introductory lecture was conducted and we got to know a lot of other students, which started their respective internship at the same time as us. This was a great opportunity to connect and find likeminded people during this Erasmus placement. The clinical rotation included daily consultant-led ward rounds, multidisciplinary radiology review meetings, and ward-based clinical duties, such as blood sampling, imaging coordination, dressing changes, documentation, and patient reviews. We were actively involved in the Emergency/Front Room area, assessing new trauma presentations, suturing, wound care, foreign body removal, and initial trauma assessments. We also had the chance to participate in specialized clinics:
- Burns Clinic, with a high-volume outpatient management, graft follow-up, wound assessment.
- Head Injury Clinic for trauma/neurosurgery follow-up.
- Child Protection Unit (CPU), a multidisciplinary meeting involving trauma, social work, psychology, and safeguarding services.
Additionally, we attended weekend/night shifts, which provided experience in high-acuity trauma including penetrating injuries, vascular trauma, fractures, solid organ injuries, and trauma resuscitations. Quite frankly these night shifts proved to be the best parts of our internship. Having a high frequency of patients with very critical injuries had a huge impact on our clinical training. The doctor and nursing staff were very supportive and helped us with any questions that arose. All in all, this made for an excellent learning environment. I am sure this only enhanced our capabilities and furthered our understanding of clinical work.
