There, I do intake and triage (determining the urgency of patients' situations), as well as assist them in doing research on the overall operation and system. This includes taking vital signs, assessing the needs of the patients, and sending them off to wherever they can get treated the best. As for the research, I do a lot of data analysis and presentations. Since I arrived, I have been volunteering at that hospital a few days a week.
Because pf my interest in global health, I was interested in learning about healthcare in refugee camps. I want an understanding of the healthcare system as a whole, not just one end of the spectrum. So I continued networking and found this amazing medical center at Dzaleka Refugee Camp where I am now volunteering in a similar capacity to ABC Mission Hospital: doing vitals and triage. It is a year-round medical center that is open 24/7 and has a pharmacy, laboratory, surgery room, and wards where we can admit patients for several days at a time.
I wrote about this experience in my personal journal during one of my first weeks, and I wanted to share with you a part of it, so that you get an idea of what it is like there. Here's what I wrote:
“I am currently sitting inside a small, 6-person staff hospital in the middle of Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi, in Africa, writing this entry. I have just finished noting nearly 80 words and phrases in Swahili that I am working to memorize today as I prepare to do intake and triage for refugee patients from the DRC, Tanzania, and Burundi. Thus far, not a single patient has been able to speak even a bit of English. Most of them only speak Swahili, a language common in East Africa.
