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 26, 2010


Today I met with the Dean of the UCC medical school who told me about the Ghana medical school system.  To become a doctor,   Sstudents can enter medical school after secondary school (approximately age 18), or after a BSc is obtained.  If one enters directly from secondary school, an introductory year of basic sciences courses must be completed, after which 5 years of medical training is completed.  If a BSc has already been obtained, the year of basic science training is ommited and medical school only takes 5 years total.  Similar to Canada, students see patients in their 3rd and 4th years.  Unlike in Canada, students in the 5th and 6th years are trained fairly comprehensively in surgery.  Upon completion of school, students do a 2 year fellowship with an experienced doctor before they are fully qualified.  Once qualified, doctors must fulfill a government-enforced 2 year community-based practise program, during which doctors work in under-served areas.  The community-based practise program is supposed to allow doctors to give back to the community and learn cultural practises of different areas.  Doctors Kudoh and Kwarteng, who I have been shadowing, are in this stage (and not too happy with the program).  After 2 years of community-based practise is completed, doctors are free to practise at a hospital they choose.
As for cost of school, students pay about $4 000 CAN a year, which includes accommodations (very nice by Ghanaian standards).  During the community-based practise time, doctors are paid about $600 CAN a month (very low by international standards (think $7 200 CAN a year), but high for Ghana compared to other occupations (a secondary school teacher makes $75 CAN a month)).  Once a doctor is fully trained the wage is supposed to increase to about 3,000 Cedi/ month (still only $25 714 CAN per year), but in actual practise it seems the increase is less than this.
I was taken on a tour of the UCC med school facilities, and given a history on the school.  The UCC medical school just opened 3 years ago and is still being developed.  From what I saw, the UCC facilities and equipment were very modern.  The school has biochemistry, histology, anatomy, and clinical practise labs, as well as a mortuary, from which cadavers are obtained.  I was shown the cadavers used in the anatomy classes, which were held in formalin tanks.  It looked like the UCC students had been getting a lot of use out of the cadavers, as they were pretty hacked up.
At night, the volunteers and I went out to Oasis for dinner and drinks.  It was two of the volunteers last days, so we were wishing them farewell.  Sossah, the director and founder of the Abusua foundation came and I had a nice conversation with him.  He was born in Ghana, worked hard to put himself through university, then began the Abusua foundation when he was 24.  He is now 32, and has been running the Abusua program for 8 years.
Sossah told me some interesting things about the Ghana penal system.  In the penal system, it is fairly common for people to be held in prison while awaiting trial for 2 - 10 years.  Also, if someone (even foreigners) is caught with marijuana, it is an automatic 10 year imprisonment.  Sossah told a story of a mother and her teenage daughter from Europe who had been caught with a few grams of marijuana and  imprisoned.  They are currently serving out their sentence.  Nothing can be done by their embassy to get them out because they broke the  law of the country they were staying in.  The only thing their embassy can do is make their prison sentence more bearable by sending people to give the prisoners personal items (food, cleaning supplies, comfort items).  I will definately think twice before smoking up here.
Additionally, Sossah told me how dogs and cats are commonly eaten in Ghana.  I was a bit surprised by this at first, but after thinking about it, if you are starving, dogs and cats are just another source of food.      
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