Afrikids & Home Visits: Highlights from Bolgatanga #HogsAbroad in Ghana

My name is Paige Deffenbaugh, and I am a senior honors nursing student in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing. I am currently studying abroad for three weeks in Ghana, Africa with 14 other nursing students and two of our nursing instructors. The first two weeks we are spending in the northern part of Ghana in a city named Bolgatanga. The last week will be spent traveling to a city named Accra in the southern part of Ghana and stopping at multiple places along the way, including Molé Park, Kumasi, and Cape Coast. I’m going to share with you some highlights and pictures from my first week in Ghana!

While in Bolgatanga, we spend every weekday morning at one of the local clinics. This past week I have been at a clinic called Afrikids. Some parts of it that I was able to explore in depth included the consulting rooms, the maternity ward, the pharmacy, and the laboratory. In the consulting rooms, I was able to observe a doctor assessing patients and making diagnoses, as well as learn how to document the patients’ diagnoses in their computer system. In the maternity ward, I learned how to perform the different components of a prenatal assessment. In the pharmacy, I was able to see the kinds of medications that are used and prescribed most commonly in Afrikids. In the laboratory, I learned how to test for malaria and typhoid fever, as well as how they take blood samples from patients. While we were there, we observed the way their healthcare system works and how it is different from ours in the US. All of the staff at Afrikids were so welcoming and willing to teach us all that they could, as well as learn from our nursing school knowledge as well. I enjoyed getting to learn more about the jobs of many different members of the healthcare team, not just the nurses.

Abbey and I on our last day at Afrikids! This is outside of the emergency department waiting room. 

One morning instead of going to the clinics, my friend Meredith and I went on a home visit with one of our instructors Mrs. Agana. She took us to one of the local beauty salons, as the owner of the shop had a baby who wasn’t eating enough and was malnourished. Meredith and I performed a quick physical assessment on the baby and asked the mother questions about his behavior and eating habits at home. At the end of the visit, we gave recommendations to the mother about foods that she should try and feed him in order to provide him with the adequate nutrition he needs to grow up healthy and strong. While we had been assessing the baby, a woman who worked at the beauty salon had gone and pulled her son out of school and brought him to us to have a look at also. The little boy’s mouth and jaw had been hurting for a while, so Meredith and I did a quick physical assessment on him as well. With the help of Mrs. Agana, in the end we concluded that he had an infected tonsil and needed antibiotics. Each of the students will have an opportunity to go on a home visit while we are here. 

During the initial physical assessment, I listened to the baby’s heart and lung sounds. 

At one of our first study abroad meetings right after we were accepted into the program, each of us chose one or two topics to research with a partner that we would later present as a teaching project while in Ghana. One of the topics that I have been responsible for teaching about with my friend Rachel is respiratory illnesses. Many women in Ghana do the cooking for their families and are exposed to smoke via the pots they use to cook with. Therefore, that long term smoke exposure may lead to respiratory symptoms and illnesses over time. Some of the money our study abroad group raised through FundRazor went towards buying about 70 of a new kind of cooking pot that reduces the amount of smoke produced when in use. Rachel and I will present this teaching project multiple times while we are here, giving away cooking pots to each household that attends our teaching until we run out. Our first time teaching was this past week. We went to a group of family houses behind a bakery, so some of the women we were teaching were being exposed to much more smoke than usual because of their occupations as bakers. We taught them the effects that smoke inhalation has on their respiratory system, signs and symptoms of respiratory illnesses, and ways to prevent lots of smoke inhalation and the development of respiratory illnesses (like using the new cooking pots). Some of the other students on the study abroad trip occupied the women’s children so that they would not be a distraction while Rachel and I were teaching.

During our teaching project, Rachel and I taught a little bit about the anatomy of the respiratory system. 

Some of the women who received new cooking pots for their households. 

Those are just a few highlights from my first week in Ghana! Stay tuned for more updates.

--
Paige Deffenbaugh is spending the summer 2019 term in Ghana with our U of A Faculty-Led: Community Health Nursing in Ghana program.

Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/