Four Bermudian students interested in pursuing medical careers are getting hands on training this summer as interns at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Merate-Kristos Place, Wanda Trott, Byron Walker and Amn? Foggo have all spent the summer working under Dr. Clyde Wilson ? consultant microbiologist for the Microbiology and Pathology departments.

Each student has had a different experience working in the hospital?s laboratory services for the summer.

Ms Trott, 22, of Hamilton Parish said she is enjoying her first summer at KEMH. She attends St. Mary?s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada where she is majoring in biology.

She plans to attend medical school in London to specialise in paediatrics after finishing her undergraduate work.

In her first year interning at KEMH, she has been working in the Cytology and Histology lab and has been shadowing Dr. Vernon Bowes, a forensic pathologist, as well Dr. Wilson.

Ms Trott said she has assisted in preparing various tests in the lab. She has also observed post-mortems and kept records of organs removed during autopsies.

?The best part about this programme is getting to talk personally to doctors about school and work,? she said. ?Dr. Wilson does a good job of explaining.?

Another intern who has thoroughly enjoyed working with Dr. Wilson is Byron Walker.

Mr. Walker, 22, graduated from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada. He has completed one year of medical school at McGill University in Montreal where he is studying paediatric surgery.

Mr. Walker said he has always been fascinated by the medical field and has worked every summer at KEMH for the past five years. ?I like the medical field and children so the safest bet is to combine both of them,? he said of his career choice.

At KEMH, Mr. Walker is a student microbiologist.

Among his tasks are to isolate and report occurrences of sexually transmitted diseases and food-borne illnesses such as salmonella and parasites.

Amn? Foggo?s history with KEMH goes back six years. Her strong interest in pathology led her to begin volunteering at the hospital in 1999.

The 22-year-old St. David?s native recently graduated with honours from University of East London with a degree in forensic science.

In the summer of 2002, she began working in the Cytology and Histology lab under Jackie Simons. Ms Foggo said she is most interested in autopsies and actually enjoys visits to the morgue.

She was also the first intern to be trained and to utilise the liquid based cytology thin prep which is used to prepare specimens for analysis.

?Getting hands on experience and first hand knowledge and also seeing autopsies,? are the best parts of working in the lab, she said. While she is committed to her field of study, Ms Foggo said accepting the length of time it takes to get a speciality in medicine is one the biggest challenges.

Merate-Kristos Place, 24, of Pembroke, also said having the opportunity to observe autopsies has been fascinating.

Ms Place has just finished her first year at St. Thomas? School of Medicine in London after completing her undergraduate degree at King?s University in Canada.

Her road to medical school has been helped dramatically by the fact that last August she was awarded the Bermuda Hospitals Auxiliary Board?s one-time only 50th anniversary scholarship of $100,000.

This summer Ms Place has been working in the Pathology department shadowing Dr. Wilson as well as pathologists Dr. James and Dr. Bowes.

She also had the opportunity to attend an Intensive Care Unit ward round ? a meeting where doctors, dieticians, nurses and physiotherapists discuss the patients on the ward.

?Having my eyes opened to everything in the lab,? has been the most fascinating part of her summer job experience, she said. ?As a future doctor I think it is important to be aware of what is behind the scenes.?

While the students have been inspired by their experiences, their supervisor, Dr. Wilson, said working with them has also been inspiring and hopefully bodes well for his discipline.

?It was very enjoyable working with students who are highly motivated and interested in pathology,? he said. ?I hope they will seriously consider specialising in one of the disciplines of pathology.?