Blog Description

This past summer I went on a 6 week medical observational internship in Ghana, Africa with the Abusua Foundation (an NGO run out of Ghana). I went to gain experience in a hospital and see if medicine is really what I want to do with my life. I lived in the small village of Kwaprow, in the coastal fishing town of Cape Coast. I worked in two hospitals: Cape Coast District (smaller, less modern)and Central Regional (larger, more modern). I also taught English and Science to young children of my village at the BCL after-school program.

While there, I wrote a journal about my experiences in the hospital, teaching at the after-school program, and general life in Ghana. Since being home, some people have expressed an interest in reading the journal, so I figured the easiest thing to do was to post the journal here for anyone who is interested in reading it. Any patient names mentioned have been changed to ensure confidentiality.

It should be noted that because this is a blog site, the postings are in reverse order of when they occurred (which I can't change). So, to read the entries in order you should start from the oldest posts at the bottom of this page.

About Ghana
Ghana is a coastal country in West Africa. The national language of Ghana is English. The capital of Ghana is Accra. Ghana is considered the safest country in Africa (according to global peace index; see Global Peace Index map at the bottom). In terms of development, Ghana is ranked in the middle tier of African countries and 152 out of 182 in the world by the Human Development Index.

Monetary exchange:
$1.40 CAN = 1 Cedi, 1 Cedi = 100 Pesewas





July 23, 2010


Things at the hospital this past week have continued to go well.  I visited a former patient, Paul Kwesi, from the paediatric ward who had been very sick with malaria and he is doing much better.  Paul had been semi-conscious for 3 weeks prior, but now was able to walk and eat on his own.  It was a very uplifting feeling to observe his improvement.
My typical schedule has been to observe rounds with Dr. Kudoh in the male ward, follow Dr. Kwarteng in the female ward, then observe a surgery in the early afternoon.  Dr. Kudoh continues to be a great clinical teacher.  This week from Dr. Kudoh, I have learned to rank a patients level of consciousness using the Glasgow Coma Scale.  He also taught me the steps to take in first examining a patient, and questions to ask a patient complaining of pain. 
The surgeries I observed were: two C-sections, and a lymphoma removal.  All operations were successful.  Dr. Kwarteng asked me and Rob today if we wanted to assist in a C-section.  He may have been kidding, but I am pretty sure he was not.  We told Dr. Kwarteng we have no training and could not ethically do this.  The assistant plays a large role in the surgery (helping to open the abdominal wall, cut tissue, wipe blood).  If anything were to go wrong, I would not know what to do.  I was not comfortable with that responsibility, so I declined, even though it would have been pretty interesting. 
Dr. Kudoh and Dr. Kwarteng also told me about the Ghana health care system from a doctors point of view.  It seems the Ghanaian government plays a very large role in determining where each doctor will practise.  Both doctors Kudoh and Kwarteng were assigned to CCDH to fulfill a required community-based practise program.  This would be fine they said, however, at these rural hospitals they are expected to perform duties they are not adequately trained to do.  For example, Dr. Kwarteng has been made the resident gynaecological surgeon at CCDH, although he does not have any specific training for this.
At BCL, things continue to go very well.
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