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Published: March 25th 2010
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We are now coming up on the last week of our placement, and beginning to prepare for the realities of coming back home to Canada within the next month. I spent week 7 at Accra Mental, one of the large psychiatric hospitals here. I had requested this placement due to my time at Alberta Hospital Edmonton as an Undergrad Nurse, but found my experience to be fairly useless here.
Just like every other area of healthcare in Ghana, psychiatry is very underfunded, although it seems more pronounced there. Some of the acute units have upwards of 150 patients on a 50 bed-unit, and patients are required to sleep outside on mats. The staff ratios are about 1:50 (compared to 1:8 in Canada), which means that security is a serious issue. We were told stories about staff being killed during fights - scary stuff.
The hospital itself has all the areas you would expect: acute care, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation, ECT, etc. It also has an epilepsy unit and the “Children’s Ward”, which is for people with disabilities (many of whom are not children). The diagnoses are somewhat different, and some patients were described as having “hysteria” or “faking it”.
There seems to be very little patient turnover, as many patients’ families refuse to take them back even after they are deemed well enough to go home. I was assigned to the Children’s ward, and the same situation existed there. Key psychiatric mediations, such as Valium, had been out of stock in the hospital for months, but the nurses are very good at making due with what they have.
The Children’s ward had its ups and downs. It was a lot of fun going to “school” with the patients, where they sing, do sensory activities and work with specialists such as speech therapists from NGOs. Unfortunately due to lack of staff and resources the patients with behavioral problems had to be kept in what was basically a cage - a sad reality in an underfunded healthcare system. It was heartbreaking to see but I couldn’t come up with a realistic alternative. At a minimum, my presence seemed to allow the patients a little extra attention.
After a tough week in psych, myself and Sarah decided to escape for a night to a beach town called Kokrobite, located about an hour outside Accra. We stayed in a little hut
at a resort called “Big Millies Backyard”, and had a fantastic time. There was a covered terrace overlooking the ocean, and we got to watch a torrential storm blow in. There was live reggae and a bonfire in the evening, and the food was exceptional. Exactly what we needed to rest up for our last week in Accra...
Week 8 I moved from Accra Mental to Mamprobi polyclinic. A polyclinic is similar to a walk-in clinic in Canada, except there is also a labour and delivery unit and a strong community health focus. There are numerous clinics run there, and I had the opportunity to attend Antenatal and Nutrition. One of my jobs was to test pregnant women for HIV, which is done routinely. The nursing staff told me that most days there is at least one woman that tests positive. It really makes you think about the kind of life these children will have. Nutrition counseling was somewhat difficult as well. Many of the children attending these clinics are so protein-deficient that their hair turns red. We taught the mothers to make a porridge from corn, beans, and grounds nuts, which in time should be very effective in
treating these types of malnutrition. Despite the tough aspects, it was great to see such thorough community health nursing taking place. Some of the other girls in the group had the chance to go to schools for immunizations and routine check-ups, and there was also STD and birth control counseling - both very important to address.
On Saturday we are leaving for a city called Kumasi, which is located in the central Ghana. From there we will be doing some rural nursing in a small village just outside Kumasi that is attempting to get a small clinic up and running. We will spend a total of five days there, after which we will have completed all the requirements for this course. Many of us are planning a trip to Mole National Park for the Easter long weekend to go on safari. I’ll be sure to post lots of pictures of the elephants once I’m back in Accra!
Take care,
Kate
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Carla Robinson
non-member comment
Hello Kate, nice to hear from you. Larry and I were saying last night we were wondering how you were doing and thought you must be very busy. Your stories are very sad in deed and not unlike when I was there. It broke my heart every day. I am also sorry you found the mental placement less than what you would have liked. I remember also going to Kumasi and thought the surrounding areas to be very beautiful. I am sure you will enjoy your last week and then the safari. I did not see any elephants when I was in Ghana and you know how much I like elephants, but I did see lots of monkeys. Be sure to take lots of pictures. We are looking forward to seeing you when you get back. Enjoy the rest of your time there. You will have memories to share for years to come. We are also very proud of you for doing this placement. It takes a lot of courage and stamina to do what you are doing. Love Carla P.S.: I heard some encouraging news today, (which I had heard previously but now think it has some substance). Diana said that the Health Region is saying there is no hiring freeze and that they need nurses. Apparently the number of postings went from 3 available job postings a few days ago to 5 pages of postings now! Have fun!