Sri Lanka has something for everyone. Adrenaline junkies will love the world-class surf, trekking and rafting whilst animal-lovers can swim with dolphins and track wild elephants in the national parks. Into history and culture? The UNESCO temples are something to behold. There are even a few tropical beaches thrown in for good measure.

The Work The World House

Our house in Kandy will be a hub of activity throughout your clinical placement in Sri Lanka. Think of it as your home from home during your elective in Sri Lanka. You will share the house with other healthcare students and graduates from around the world.

You’ll find the Kandy house is just a stone’s throw from Kandy Lake. Living here, you’ll enjoy stunning views overlooking the lake and the surrounding hills. The house is open and airy, which is perfect for the warm climate. The layout also offers plenty of social areas to unwind after a day on the wards. We do not have a swimming pool at the house, but we’ve partnered with the hotel next door (a one-minute walk away), which offers preferential rates to all Work the World travellers. 

Outside the house, you can hop into a tuk-tuk and zip off to visit ancient temples, ride up to the Big Buddha statue to watch the sunset over the bustling city below, and have some fun in the local bars and restaurants.

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View from a bedroom balcony

Access to pool next door to house

View from a bedroom balcony

Access to pool next door to house

In-Country Team

Management team: Based in the house, they oversee your entire Work the World experience — 24/7 — from the moment you land to the moment you leaveCatering team: Cook a variety of both local cuisine and familiar home comforts, accommodating all dietary requirementsHousekeeper: Keeps the house clean and tidy from top to bottom, making sure you're comfortableLanguage teacher: Visits the house twice per-week. During their lessons, you’ll learn everyday phrases and clinical terminology to help you get more from your placementSecurity team: Monitor the house 24/7 for your peace of mind

Electives in Kandy

Nursing electives in Sri Lanka

Nursing Electives

Our partner hospital in Kandy is huge, and you can get experience in a range of departments. The hospital has many specialist ICUs you can get experience in including: surgical, medical, cardiothoracics, the coronary care unit, psychiatry, OBG, and general medicine. When it comes to patients, you’ll see people present conditions that are either rare or non-existent in the UK. These could include tropical infectious diseases like dengue fever, chikungunya, and chagas, or things like tuberculosis and malnutrition.

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Medical electives in Sri Lanka

Medical Electives

In Kandy, you can get experience in departments including psychiatry, surgery, OBG, and general medicine among others. For cultural and religious reasons, the practices and attitudes towards medicine in Sri Lanka may differ from what you’ve learned. Our partner hospital is also known for its extraordinarily broad range of ICUs including surgical ICU, medical ICU, cardiothoracic ICU, coronary care unit, and cardiac ICU. Treatments are free at the point of care for patients in Sri Lanka, but a lack of resources is still a real challenge for local staff. Our medical electives in Sri Lanka offer you the experience of a lifetime.

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Midwifery electives in Sri Lanka

Midwifery Electives

Our partner hospital in Kandy is a tertiary referral hospital so it sees a lot of complicated pregnancies. To give you some idea of the numbers, c-sections make up around 40% of all births in the country. You can actually see what this looks like as a midwifery student in Sri Lanka by spending time in one of the theatres dedicated to OBG cases. You might also want to rotate through wards like antenatal, labour, and postnatal wards, and the premature baby unit. You have access to the hospital’s lactation management centre too.

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Nursing electives in Sri Lanka

Radiography Electives

The radiology department in our partner hospital in Kandy is one of the few in Sri Lanka that offer all types of radiographic diagnostic services under one roof. This means the department is often busy despite being open 24/7. To give you some idea, on any given day, local staff can perform up to 400 X-rays, 150 CT scans, and 10 MRIs. Undertake your placement here, and you can choose to rotate through any (or all) of the following: X-ray rooms, the dental X-ray department, the CT room, the MRI unit, the DSA unit, and the mammography unit. If your focus is radiotherapy, you can get experience alongside local radiotherapists to learn about the challenges of administering treatments in a low-resource setting.

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Dentistry electives in Sri Lanka

Dentistry Electives

The dentistry department at our partner hospital is separated out into four units — the OPD, restorative dentistry, orthodontics and maxillofacial. The department offers a range of treatments like root canal treatment, wisdom tooth removal, restorations, pulpectomies, and infection management. You’ll see equipment like cavitrons, drilling machines, and sterilisers, and curing lights have recently been introduced. The maxillofacial unit provides routine oral surgeries, major oral surgeries like cleft lip and palate surgeries, and some emergency surgeries. If you spend any time in maxillofacial, you will probably see cases of oral cancer too.

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Occupational Therapy electives in Sri Lanka

Occupational Therapy Electives

On an OT elective in Kandy, you'll spend time addressing injuries and neurological conditions with the local occupational therapy team. Other common conditions you might see include burns, fractures, limb deformities, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, cerebral visual impairments, and skeletal injuries. You'll see how local staff work with limited resources to restore mobility, prevent scarring, strengthen muscles, improve coordination, and enhance sensory and motor function and well-being. With up to 30 patients daily, you'll learn how the team manages referrals, assessments, follow-ups, and treatment plans, working to develop individualised rehabilitation strategies.

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Paramedic Science electives in Nepal

Paramedic Science Electives

You'll see many cases and treatments in the Emergency Treatment Unit at your placement hospital in Kandy. Some will be familiar — road traffic accidents, myocardial infarction, strokes. But others will be far from what you know, like snake bites. The department is resource-limited but busy, with up to 100 patients admitted in a 24-hour period. You could also get access to and experience with some cross-over facilities like MRI and X-ray.

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Pharmacy Electives

A pharmacy internship in Kandy will highlight local practitioners' daily limitations. Spending time in our major partner hospital, you’ll come to understand how local specialists manage and distribute the limited supplies they have. There is a noticeable lack of funding here, and administrative processes are often manual. When it comes to patients, you’ll encounter people from Kandy itself and those from rural communities who’ve travelled great distances to receive treatment.

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Physiotherapy electives in Sri Lanka

Physiotherapy Placements

Undertaking your placement in the rheumatology department’s physiotherapy unit, Kandy offers a varied placement. You’ll experience in several areas including the neurosurgical ward, surgical ICU and cardiothoracics. You can also spend time in the OPD, helping to rehabilitate patients using basic gym equipment and other treatments. The OPD sees a steady stream of patients daily. Common conditions include cerebral palsy, stroke, fractures, burns, MSK, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and beyond. If you’re interested in sports medicine, you can spend time in the dedicated unit that offers various services, including sports medicine clinics for school children and physiotherapy programs for athletes.

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Biomedical Science Electives

Your placement will be in a hospital established in the 1800s, now the second-largest in Sri Lanka. Here, you can gain experience in departments like pathology, virology, microbiology, and haematology. In the recently established molecular biology unit, you'll observe how local specialists use cancer-related DNA testing to identify specific cancer markers. In Kandy, tropical communicable diseases are widespread, allowing you to assist in diagnosing illnesses such as dengue fever, leptospirosis, and cholera.

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Village healthcare week

Immerse yourself in Sri Lanka’s culture and healthcare system by spending a week in a rural community. You'll live with a local family during your stay, and they will welcome you into the community, showing you what rural life is like.

Each morning, you'll visit a rural clinical setting where a local team provides primary care. You could see things like routine checkups, vaccination programs and even traditional Ayurvedic medicine practices. However, with even fewer resources than city hospitals, you'll see just how limited the level of care is compared to the UK.

You'll be free in the afternoons to explore the Sri Lankan countryside, visit tea plantations, go on waterfall hikes, and visit national parks and temples. This experience will perfectly complement your healthcare elective in Sri Lanka.

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Medical electives in Sri Lanka
Medical electives in Sri Lanka

"From start to finish, every member of the Work the World team was terrific."

Rachel Stoker, Dundee University 2025

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"I observed lots of memorable cases across the many departments I had a chance to experience."

Thomas Holt, Dundee University 2025

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"It was reassuring to know I would meet other healthcare students and not have to stress about where to stay or what to eat."

Karlijn Zwiers, University of Amsterdam 2025

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"The placement was so well organised, and everyone was so friendly - I would really recommend it!"

Meg Naylor, Hull York Medical School (HYMS) 2025

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"Booking my overseas placement with Work the World was the best decision I could have ever made."

Natalie Bird, Hull York Medical School 2024

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What healthcare disciplines do Work the World cater for?

Work the World organises supervised healthcare electives in Asia and Africa for the following disciplines: - 1. Nursing (all branches) 2. Medical 3. Midwifery 4. Physiotherapy 5. Radiography 6. Pharmacy 7. Dentistry 8. Occupational Therapy 9. Paramedic Science 10. Biomedical Science

What is the Work the World house like in Sri Lanka

Our house in Sri Lanka is situated in the heart of the city of Kandy. The house itself is open and airy -  perfect for the warm climate, and there are plenty of social areas for you and your housemates to unwind after a day on placement.

What travelling opportunities are there for me whilst I’m in Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka has something for everyone. Adrenaline junkies will love the surf, trekking and rafting whilst animal-lovers can swim with dolphins and track wild elephants in the national parks. There are even a few tropical beaches thrown in for good measure.