NAME: Edmond Irankunda
SPECIALTY: Emergency Medicine
RESIDENCY MATCH: University of Cincinnati
REACTION: “I feel excited and relieved. This was my top choice. I just can’t believe I’m finally here.”
The first to see patients
For Edmond Irankunda, who is finishing four years at IU School of Medicine-South Bend, a career in Emergency Medicine satisfies many interests. “I like being the among the first people to see and treat patients,” he said, and he enjoys working with other medical first responders.
Emergency medicine is a specialty that will allow Irankunda to face challenges such as caring for trauma patients, and to think on his feet about the medicine needed to save a critically ill patient.
Moreover, emergency medicine is a field “where you have to treat everybody,” Irankunda said. A four-year veteran of the Navari Student Outreach Clinic, Irankunda has gained significant experience helping people with poor access to care, a background that will undoubtedly serve him well throughout his career.
Irankunda emigrated from Kigali, Rwanda, to South Bend in 2003. He attended Butler University for his first year of college, but transferred to the nursing program at IU South Bend. “All my cousins took nursing at IU South Bend,” he said.
Nursing was a great choice for Irankunda, because it provided access to clinical settings early in his undergraduate career and helped him decide that medicine was his future. Although he would earn his nursing degree, by his third year at IU South Bend he knew he wanted to attend to medical school. Working as a scribe in the Elkhart General Hospital’s emergency department also shaped his perspective.
Irankunda will soon head to Cincinnati with his wife Victoria and their 10-month-old son, Kimani.
Written by Gail Mancini — IU School of Medicine South Bend campus
