Zach Wiley is home on leave for a few days from Notre Dame, enjoying the lovely weather in Alpine with Mom and Dad, Julie and Chris Wiley. Zach has been enduring severe winter weather in Indiana sticking at temperatures around 20 to 30 degrees. Wiley said that it hasn’t been as cold this winter, but it’s also not like home.
Zach Wiley is home on leave for a few days from Notre Dame, enjoying the lovely weather in Alpine with Mom and Dad, Julie and Chris Wiley. Zach has been enduring severe winter weather in Indiana sticking at temperatures around 20 to 30 degrees. Wiley said that it hasn’t been as cold this winter, but it’s also not like home.
The Alpine Sun ran an article on Zach’s education endeavors when he was accepted into Notre Dame three years ago. Now he has one more year to complete and it has been an adventure, before he moves onto his four year endeavor in Medical School.
Wiley had the opportunity to visit Puebla, Mexico to observe their medical practices last year, spending a whole semester experiencing the culture. He was able to participate in clinical shadowing, spending 2 days a week going to a local hospital, and shadowing in an operating room or treating patients. This day to day observation of doctor’s duties was eye-opening for Wiley, as he said that they are very similar to a doctor in the United States.
He was also able to observe medicine in a more traditional setting when he visited a rural medical facility where the patients were open to many of the ‘old ways’ rather than the more updated modern medical procedures of today. Wiley was impressed with how the hospital of the area incorporated the traditional old practices with their facilities to make the patients more comfortable receiving medical help. They welcomed ‘healers’ from the village to work with doctors to treat people. And like our medical profession today, there are healers for different ailments, such as a healer for broken bones, etc.
Wiley found that the people of Mexico are generally nice and very hospitable and welcoming. He spent over 5 months in Puebla, Mexico, experiencing an immersion of the culture. When he was asked whether or not he was not fluent in the language, he was happy to admit that he was ‘conversational’ but not necessarily fluent.
He is looking forward to moving on the medical school after his time at Notre Dame. He has yet to pick his specialty in medicine, but as he said, most doctors pick that when they have a few years into medical school where they can really learn about the different practices. He said, ‘In medical school you get more exposure to all the different facets of medicine.”
