The Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) is welcoming seven final-year Medicine students from Universidad del Valle this week. The students will resume their medical internship in Bucaramanga, which was interrupted by the emergency caused by the earthquake that struck Cali on August 10. The students will arrive at UIS and, on Tuesday and Wednesday, will take part in orientation sessions and become familiar with the settings where they will carry out their academic activities. On Thursday, they will begin their clinical rotations at Hospital Universitario de Santander (HUS).
The decision follows an offer made by UIS to support Universidad del Valle after the emergency affected the infrastructure of the hospital network in the region where the future physicians were completing their internships. The seven students had been unable to continue their clinical training for four weeks.
“It is a generous offer made by the Universidad Industrial de Santander. At a time when the healthcare infrastructure where final-year medical students carry out their clinical training has been somewhat damaged, a group of seven students is coming here to complete their internship year with us,” explained Luis Miguel Sosa Ávila, director of the UIS School of Medicine.
According to Carlos Alberto Velasco Benítez, a professor at Universidad del Valle who also taught at UIS from 1995 to 2002, the seven medical interns will remain in Bucaramanga for six months and continue their training at Hospital Universitario de Santander. “On behalf of our university, Universidad del Valle, we would like to express our most sincere gratitude for this gesture of solidarity and brotherhood between the Universidad Industrial de Santander and Universidad del Valle,” said Velasco Benítez.
The students will also have access to a support plan established by the UIS Office of the Rector and the Administrative Vice-Rector’s Office, as well as the academic and student welfare conditions necessary to carry out their clinical rotations.
The gesture of solidarity was also recognized in Cali. In a message addressed to Rector Hernán Porras, Claudia María Payán Villamizar, dean of the Faculty of Health at Universidad del Valle, expressed her gratitude for the institutional support received following the earthquake. “On behalf of the Faculty of Health at Universidad del Valle, we extend our sincerest gratitude for the solidarity and humanity shown to us by the Universidad Industrial de Santander,” said Payán Villamizar.
The dean highlighted that UIS’s support contributed to the resumption of the university’s core activities related to the training of future physicians and healthcare professionals. “Higher education institutions are more united than ever in working toward the construction of our country’s future,” she added.
For UIS, welcoming the interns reflects the role of public universities in responding to situations that affect their students’ education. “As a public university, we are always ready and willing to collaborate with Colombian institutions to contribute to a better quality of life, and at this moment we cannot stand aside,” said Rector Hernán Porras, adding: “A public university, when another sister university needs support, does not ask why: it opens its doors and takes action.”
The arrival of the seven students also strengthens the academic ties between two public universities and opens a new chapter of cooperation between their Schools of Medicine.
