She has participated in mission trips to countries including Peru, India, and the Dominican Republic. Now she has achieved her long-held goal and has obtained a residency in Categorical Surgery at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Surgery is my passion, global surgery actually,” she said. “To me, the goal of surgery is to definitively fix the patient, and I like that aspect of it. In addition to this, I appreciate that surgery cannot be done on autopilot; for example, something that may appear like a simple surgery, never is because everyone’s anatomy is so different. Also, I enjoy working in a team setting. I hope to use the experience that I have gained from attending an international medical school, along with the expertise I gain in residency, and the knowledge from my Master’s in Public Health program to help me practice surgery on a global scale in developing countries, or at least improve the surgical conditions internationally.” While waiting to begin her residency Dr. Slama is pursuing an MPH degree with a focus in global health at George Washington University in Washington, DC, which she anticipates being awarded in May.
Dr. Slama considers Florida her home. She moved to the state with her family when she was in high school, and went on to complete her undergraduate studies at Florida State University in Tallahassee, with bachelors’ degrees in both biology and Spanish. Originally she enrolled in another international medical school, she noted, but, “While I was already rotating in the United States with my prior school, I felt that Ross University had a broader clinical network, and decided to transfer to Ross,” she said.” By broad clinical network I mean they have rotation sites at many places across the United States, as well as rotations where there are residency programs, which I found to be a key choice in my transfer, as well as places where international medical graduates were matching for residency. I think transferring to Ross has been the best career choice I have made.”
There are already a number of publications on her CV, of which Dr. Slama is a co-author. She also won an award for a poster she presented at the Ross Leadership Conference in Cancun, Mexico in 2016.
