Medical Internships: Intern abroad in Athens, Greece

Internship details

Medical internships in Athens offer valuable learning experiences in public and private hospitals and clinics, with state-of-the-art technology and modern healthcare practices. Interns shadow and assist local medical professionals and rotate through a range of medical departments to gain practical knowledge and broad experience in European healthcare.

In addition to these Medical internships in Athens, Intern Abroad HQ also offers Medical internships in Thessaloniki. Spaces are limited on both programs, so applicants are strongly encouraged to confirm participation in advance for their preferred internship location.

This is an in-country internship, with accommodation provided.

As an intern, you’ll work closely with experienced medical professionals, such as doctors, surgeons and nurses, to gain genuine understanding of healthcare in action. Internships are fantastic learning environments to gain experience from trained medical staff as they go about their daily duties, across various departments or specialist areas.

Many medical professionals within Greece have studied and/or spent time working abroad (such as in the US or UK). Professionals have excellent English proficiency and interns are unlikely to experience language barriers with their supervisors or within medical teams. While there will be plenty of opportunities to learn with supervisors and colleagues in English, interns should expect some patient interaction to be in Greek and should be prepared to work through occasional language barriers.

As these internships are educational in nature, interns should not expect to work “hands on” with patients. Your supervisor will always take your current level of experience and abilities into consideration, along with your areas of medical interest, when engaging with you to support and customize your internship experience.

Medical interns will have a rotation roster to diversify the experience and gain understanding across numerous departments. These can include:

• Anesthesiology
• Cardiology
• Dialysis
• Emergency Room
• Endocrinology
• Gastroenterology
• General Surgery
• Hematopathology
• Intensive Care Unit
• Nuclear Medicine
• Orofacial Surgery
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Oncology
• Pathologic Anatomy
• Plastic surgery
• Pneumology
• Radiology

Interns are able to request an internship schedule that includes particular departments of interest (e.g. orthopedic surgery, cardiology, hematology, etc.). Although requests are always subject to availability, your supervisors within the medical team will do their utmost to ensure your experience is related closely to your studies and goals as a future professional.

Note that supervision on these internships is handled by a range of medical professionals. Interns must expect to work in a multidisciplinary team. Depending on your medical department and variations of your daily roster, this may include nursing teams, doctors, or other department heads. Such team members are in the best position to provide guidance, direction, and answer questions as it will pertain to current duties and responsibilities. Therefore, there is not one sole supervisor throughout, as interns interact with a range of local staff in various positions, deferring to their expertise and instruction.

In all cases, interns should expect that the first week of your experience will focus on settling in and gaining some introductory knowledge, as you will not “hit the ground running”. Rather, you should start with learning about the placement to gain an understanding of what you can build upon, develop, learn, and contribute. The Greek hospital administration is structured in a way that medical internship supervisors will often not be aware of the interns or their qualifications until the intern arrives for their orientation. Rather, a hospital administrator oversees the placement of the intern until their arrival. Ensure that you ask questions of your supervisors and provide feedback during the introductory period, so that your supervisor understands how you’re progressing. This will help them to better understand important details, such as how quickly you learn, what you find challenging, what you find interesting, etc.

Understand and expect that individual internship experiences vary, as the specific placement that you’re assigned will depend on review of your resume and your current level of studies and experience. Therefore, if you’re at a more introductory level, you should reasonably expect a more introductory internship. Likewise, if you’re interning for a shorter duration, you will have a different experience from someone who is interning for a longer duration. Placement preferences are considered but always subject to availability.

Typical Schedule

• Up to 8 hours per day, five days per week. Occasionally your supervisor may invite you to optionally observe a procedure during a weekend, should it be relevant to your interests and internship experience.

What are the career benefits of interning abroad as a Medical Intern?