So, in an effort to communicate basic phrases like ‘How do you feel?’ or ‘What is your name?,’ I write down and memorize as many phrases/words as possible to accelerate my abilities to communicate, even minimally, with the patients as they are sent to the single nurse and clinical officer within this small medical center. While here, I have seen patients arrive to us barely limping along and only half conscious. It is then the job of us 6 people to make sure they don’t leave the same way they have entered. While not able to perform any procedures or give treatments, I have still been able to add value to the team, as I can take the patient's vital signs and get their basic information and history, which frees up the nurse to draw blood, run basic tests, and provide treatments to the patients as directed by the clinical officer. I see patients crowding into the waiting room draped across the benches, waiting for their opportunity to speak to the doctor or nurse. Some are admitted to the ward for several days at a time where they lay in beds separated only by a few feet and no curtains. It is sobering and eye-opening to see these meager accommodations and as someone with hopes to one day provide care to these types of communities, whether at home or abroad.”
It has been such a formative and important experience to see what healthcare is like here in Malawi and better understand what the field of global health can entail. The doctors and nurses at all the hospitals I have volunteered at are awesome and work very hard. It has been a learning experience and I have loved every second.
I thought that instead of going on about what it is like, and all the minor details, you would rather just see it for yourself!
