Electives & other short-term placements
Why study with us?
Experience
Student examining a patient in a remote jail
We have over a decade (including right through the pandemic) of experience in providing offender healthcare electives to student healthcare professionals (HCPs) of all faiths and none.
Difference
Unlike lots of other placement providers, we give you the chance to make a real difference. You won’t be a ‘spare wheel’ standing in the corner of a clinic or ward. We actually need your help.
Every week you will see many sick detainees every week who otherwise would go without medical assistance.
You will be able to further your career, by gathering material for a case study suitable for publication in a peer reviewed journal.
And you will contribute to our service development by:
making a culturally appropriate patient information leaflet (PIL)
recording a teaching aid to complement the PIL
doing a quality improvement project (QIP)
Hands-on
You will work hand-in-glove with our Philippines healthcare team. We have a daily morning meeting, followed by activities both scheduled and adhoc. No one week is exactly the same: both Philippine culture and offender healthcare are highly unpredictable, and time-off requests vary from student to student. A flexible attitude is absolutely essential. But here’s a typical week:
Police detainees showing their scabies rashes
Monday: AM police station clinic & PM interview patients for case studies
Tuesday: AM teach local student HCPs & PM visit jail to see particular patients
Wednesday: AM help with feeding program & PM vist a partner NGO
Thursday: AM drug enforcement unit clinic & PM QIP work or logistical support
Friday: AM team building & lunch on local beach & PM clinical administration
Assessment
We keep a log of team outputs. We maintain a retrospective Google calendar of what actually happened each week, in case a medical school requires proof of activity. And we document a case-based discussion with you about a patient you found particularly interesting.
Safe
We take seriously our duty of care to you. We have never had an elective student come to physical or psychological harm. We induct you thoroughly. We equip you properly - including FFP3 masks to filter not just COVID-19 but also tuberculosis. We deploy you in line with our specialist policies. And we supervise you carefully.
Supportive
Elective students Imogen and Olivia off duty in our base’s secure courtyard
Offender healthcare is neither straightforward nor risk free. Doing it in another climate and culture adds further to the challenge. So we give you optimal support throughout your placement:
comfortably full board accommodation in our safe, home-from-home base
daily medical supervision by a suitably experienced doctor familiar with your own medical and social culture
weekly in the evenings:
clinical supervision for your psychological support
teaching about relevant health conditions
Value
Running placements in such a safe, supportive manner is necessary but does not come cheap. We represent tremendous value for money.
COMING SOON Learn more…
Fun
An offender healthcare placcement really is enormous fun in itself. And there are many more ways to further enhance the fun. Learn more…
Motivation
Hannah and fellow elective student Sam in our base, at the close of a CPR training day they ran for our local staff, local OJT students. and teachers of detainees’ children
We run offender healthcare placements because we are passionate about getting you - part of the next generation of HCPs - to care about detainees.
Even if you don’t become a dedicated offender healthcare professional working in a secure environment, simply understanding more about detainees will help. Detainees are often transferred to hospital and seen in outpatient clinics. Your attitude will help the detainee in front of you, and also be a force for good amongst your colleagues.
Having the right motivation is of vital importance for an elective within this healthcare field. We look for compassionate, flexible, hard working team players who are willing to serve.
One student who embodied all of these qualities is Hannah, now Dr Bolton, who did her elective with us in 2025. She threw herself into her elective, served with distinction, and wrote an insightful elective report for the sponsor of her bursary:
I am grateful to have learnt about a completely different culture, medicine through bars, taking leadership, the running of an NGO, and faith in action. It has left me wanting to get involved in so many areas of healthcare and faith, but of course, it is not possible to do everything. Wherever I end up, I will incorporate the integral mission and pursue justice for those I meet.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to
live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Ephesians 4:1
