Country of Origin: UK
Country of Stay: Ghana
Duration of Stay: 4 weeks
July 10th 2009 - August 10th 2009
Program: Health Internship at a Hospital
Project: Child Nursing at Ketu District Hospital
I was supposed to be working at Aflao Central Hospital, but Charles (The Coordinator) wanted me to go to Ketu District Hospital instead. It’s much bigger than Central, and run by the government. I spent most of my time on children ward, as I’m studying children’s Nursing back home. The staff was very welcome, and was keen for me to get hands-on. However, I declined mostly, as I was not comfortable with the way things were done, and there was nothing to check drug doses against. Inadequate pain relief is a big issue – for example there was a two year old girl with severe scald burns covering most of her body, and she was only on SPORADIC oral paracetamol.
Other ActivitesI spent my last weekend here painting the children ward at Aflao Central Hospital with Taryn and Felicia. The children ward is officially adopted by STAESA. We haven’t had time to paint pictures like we wanted to, so it would be great if future volunteers would carry on with this. We were thinking rainbow, flowers, ABCs, etc. if there is anyone more artistically inclined that would be fantastic! GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING; CHANGES ARE JUST VERY SLOW – STAY POSITIVE, USE YOUR INITIATIVE AND HAVE FUN! Simon (The main coordinator) is good at getting things done. He bought us the paint and equipment for the children ward – but he is not around that much, as he lives in South Africa.
WeekendsWas really good! Make good use of your weekends for travelling.
