MENTOR. FUTURE PHYSICIAN. FULBRIGHTER.

Landon Hendrickson ’18 Learned First-Hand About the Health Care System in Poland

By Texas Christian University

November 12^th, 2021

As a pre-med student at TCU, Landon Hendrickson ’18 helped mentor two Intro to University Life classes and even autonomously led class sessions a number of times. Intro to University Life is a course designed to acclimate first-year students into college life, both academically and personally. But for Hendrickson, the class served a different purpose: It piqued his interest in teaching English abroad.

Hendrickson learned exactly how he could teach abroad when Ron Pitcock, Ph.D., director of prestigious scholarships, introduced him to the Fulbright Program. After exploring many potential locations, Hendrickson decided on Poland because of his interest in the country’s culture and history. Additionally, Poland is a top choice for Fulbrighters with science backgrounds. Hendrickson credits Barrington Hwang ’14 and Kally Nord ’17, two TCU Fulbright alumni, for providing invaluable insight during his application process.

“Ultimately, I felt like this grant was an ideal pause between undergrad and medical school,” said Hendrickson. “I would get to explore Poland’s health care system and the unique history, experience life outside of school for a year and become a more well-rounded person before I jumped straight into a life of medicine and patient care.”

After reviewing his Fulbright contract, Hendrickson discovered he could choose his own flights to Poland. As a result, he spent two weeks traveling west, making stops in Hawaii, Australia, Singapore and Dubai before reaching Poland.

"[Fulbright] was an ideal pause between undergrad and med school."

Arriving In Poland

On his first night in Łódź, Poland, Hendrickson discovered the Light Move Festival, a huge laser light show that draws tens of thousands of visitors to town. “Łódź was alive that night. I kept thinking, ‘Wow, this is such a great city. I’m so pumped to be here,’” he recalled.

A scene from the Light Move Festival in Łódź, which was an unexpected surprise when Hendrickson arrived to Poland.

Hendrickson said the fun introduction to Poland he experienced at the festival contrasted the times in subsequent days he broke cultural norms and struggled to fit in.

He hadn't been in Poland long when a cashier reprimanded him for trying to push a grocery chart through the checkout line. “I figured out that it wasn’t allowed after the cashier made a scene and pushed my cart back herself," Hendrickson said. "It was a simple mistake, but I was really embarrassed." He also found daily tasks like doing laundry and commuting difficult due to the language barrier. “The first couple months, I felt conflicted,” he recalled. “Life was hard, but also fun and enjoyable. Poland is a great country, but it is different from what I was used to in the United States,” he added.

Hendrickson lived by himself in a first-floor dorm room with no air conditioning. He taught at the Medical University of Łódź and worked with master’s students in biotechnology and doctoral students. Because they were already conversational in English, Hendrickson’s main task was to improve the students’ grammar and conversational English.

Hendrickson’s Polish dorm room with bright, lime-green doors and walls. "I could have reported the weather in there," Hendrickson jokes.

Christmas Connections

Hendrickson said his first impression of Polish people was that they weren’t super friendly, but that once he got to know them, they were inviting and welcoming. When his students found out he was headed home to the United States for Christmas, they insisted that he stay and experience Christmas, Polish-style,—which involved a meal of more than a dozen courses. Each student made a traditional dish and surprised him with a feast before class one day. “I had worked so hard trying to figure out my students all semester, and this moment really showed how much they cared. It was so gratifying,” Hendrickson recalled.

Hendrickson says one of the Polish traditions he most enjoyed was visiting many of the Christmas markets, including this one in Wrocław.

Hendrickson (center in purple) with a group of his students after coordinating and eating a Christmas feast.

The Big Break

Hendrickson thinks of his time in Poland in two segments—before and after his injury. When two of his TCU friends came to visit, he took them ice skating, where he tripped and broke his leg. The group took an Uber to the hospital—a trip Hendrickson later learned would have been free had he taken an ambulance because of Poland's universal health care.

Hendrickson's TCU friends (Kyle Hepting ’21, left and Matt Williams ’20, right) helped him get to the hospital, navigate the emergency room and collect his medications after he broke his leg ice skating.

Communication is Key

Now that he is in medical school, Hendrickson says there are a lot of things he would have had the physicians he interacted with in Poland do differently. “[The experience of] breaking my leg in another country will significantly change the way I practice medicine for people who don’t speak English moving forward,” he asserted. “I won’t speak louder or slower or assume someone is stupid, like people often did to me when there was a language barrier. I will find a translator and communicate with my patient just as I would anyone else.”

He was thankful to have his friends there to help, but managing his daily affairs became a lot more challenging after they left. “Whenever you go through the health care experience as a foreigner, it changes your perspective on a lot of things,” Hendrickson said. “It was the first time I’ve ever been truly uncomfortable with the fact I can only speak one language.”

Because of some complications with finding a specialist in Poland, Hendrickson chose to fly home for surgery on his leg during a long break in the class schedule, so he only missed two weeks of teaching. Upon his return to Poland, he said everyone was helpful and exceedingly friendly.

“[The experience of] breaking my leg in another country will significantly change the way I practice medicine for people who don’t speak English moving forward.”

Landon poses for a photo with his sister Jordan Hendrickson, dad Steve Hendrickson and mom Vicki Hendrickson at an an orchestral concert at the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna.

A photo of a sign Hendrickson observed in Auschwitz.

Hendrickson snapped this photo of the barbed wire fence surrounding Auschwitz.

A New World View

Hendrickson said he grew up with a view that the United States of America was undoubtedly the greatest country in the world in almost every regard. “I was raised in this patriotic, post-9/11 United States. Everything was pretty stable.” he said. So, when he went to Poland, he expected people there to have the same view. But that wasn’t his experience, and his students oftentimes would say things on the contrary, which surprised him. “It showed me there are so many other countries with really great strengths, and we need to be okay with looking to them as examples,” he said.

Hendrickson now lives in Oklahoma City, where he attends the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He just completed his second year of medical school and passed his first board exam. Although he is undecided about which specialty he will pursue, he is certain his time in the Fulbright Program was worthwhile.

“Fulbright allowed me to see my place in the world a little more clearly and showed me there are so many simple wonders. I found that if I was willing to go into a situation with open eyes and give a place and the people a chance, I was always pleasantly surprised,” Hendrickson said.