Medicine & Healthcare - GHANA Volunteer Stories

Medicine and Healthcare in Ghana - Zanna Voysey

I can wholeheartedly say that the month I spent in Ghana on a medical project was one of the best I've ever had. I headed out there in August 08 with 2 friends from my medical school, fresh from completing our 2nd of 6 years of the training. I had been wanting to do such a project for a good while, having missed out on gap year travels and wanting to experience medicine in a developing country, so I arrived with excited anticipation - and was not disappointed.

Our home town, Winneba, could not have been more different from the never-ending swarm and bustle of Accra, the capital. Unavoidably laid-back and friendly with a Rasta vibe, I could wander around the town perfectly securely and soon grew fond of the frequent friendly 'obruni, obruni' (white person) calls from the children, who would run over to hug us excitedly. The smallest of them would tell us we were the first obrunis they had ever spoken to! Our very comfortable accommodation with a host family also gave us a fantastic insight into Ghanaian life and traditional dishes, and we built up good friendships with our fellow Winneba volunteers.

I learnt a great deal from my time in the hospital, and had some experiences I'll never forget. I spent my first week in the diagnostic lab, where I learnt how to run tests for everything from malaria and schistosomiasis to typhoid and HIV, not to mention performing my first venepunctures. Above all, the lab team were great fun and I am still in touch with some of them!

The following week I moved onto maternity, where I was able to observe a large number of natural and caesarean births, and experience first hand the tragedy of post natal depression and birth defects such as hydrocephalus, caput succedaneum and club foot. Subsequent experiences included taking over 100 blood pressures in the outpatient department, standing in on surgeries including salpingectomy and myomectomy, and witnessing emergencies in A+E such as meningitis and tetanic seizure.

Above all, however, it was the days we spent on Medical Outreach that really stood out. I will never forget arriving in the first satellite village of Winneba, hanging makeshift shelters from the baobab trees, and slowly becoming aware of the growing crowd of local Ghanaians hoping to have their symptoms looked at. While this might sound daunting, the team of nurses we were with were great in guiding us, and we soon found that even just 2 years at medical school had equipped us with enough knowledge to allow us to make a real difference. I gave advice on malaria prophylaxis and diet, wrote referral letters to the hospital, administered vitamin A and worming supplements, and was even able to give my first vaccinations.

That said the medical side of things was only half of the experience. Each afternoon, for instance, there was plenty of time to chill on Winneba's beautiful beach. One afternoon we got chatting to a local fisherman who gave us a lift in his dug out canoe to a secluded palm-fringed beach a little further down the coast. There was also plenty of scope for travelling each weekend from Friday lunchtime through to Sunday night - the tro-tro (shared minibus) system running everywhere in Ghana makes this very easy and cheap.

The first weekend saw us in Kakum, sipping cocktails over a crocodile lagoon and clambering along rope bridges hung between trees 90m up in the canopy of the jungle. The 2nd saw us out on the Western border with Cote D'Ivoire, hiking over hills to stay in an incredible rasta hideout hidden away in a secluded bay, followed by a day canoeing to reach Nuzlezo - an eery stilted village in the middle of a vast lake. The 3rd weekend, meanwhile, saw us up in the Volta region to climb mount Afadjato and visit the huge Wli falls. I'd highly recommend making the most of the adventures you can have travelling at weekends.

All in all, my experience in Ghana was more than worthwhile - I spent a good portion of the month in sheer awe! Many of the sights in the hospital were shocking and often tragic, and many of the experiences were only gained by being assertive and politely persistent - but in my opinion this only served to make the month more worthwhile. The deficit in mental health provision in Ghana, for example, has inspired me to consider it as a career option, and I very much hope to return to Ghana to improve the situation in the future. My time on the project not only left me with invaluable medical experiences, but a changed outlook altogether and I'm already planning my next travel adventure next summer! I am very grateful to Projects Abroad for making my experience possible.

Zanna Voysey

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