Today (May 7, 2013) we visited St. Patricks Hospital. This hospital was somewhat bigger than Aninwah and had some more resources than Aninwah. St. Patricks was interesting in the way it is set up because it basically was a lot of little buildings combined with covered walkways. One building was everything maternity. One building was just the theater, one the pediatric ward, one the female ward, one the male ward, and then the outpatient department.
A map of St. Patricks.
The theatre/OR.
They even had an eye clinic at St. Patricks.
They do have ambulances.
They are very resourceful here. They make just about anything with whatever they can find. For example a wheelchair made out of a plastic lawn chair, some bicycle tires, and scrap metal.
This is their version of a NICU. They had another isolette like the one pictured and above this isolette is a billi light to help with the jaundiced babies. I asked them if they check the billirubin levels of the babies and they said no, if the baby looks more yellow than the others they stick them under the light.
They also have a nursing school on the same campus as the hospital. So for today instead of doing a clinic like we did at Aninwah we taught the nursing students. They are very smart and very receptive to what we had to teach. They were also very welcoming. Upon our arrival, they welcomed us by singing to us. I have a video, but I have a feeling that it will not upload.
We taught these nursing students about hand hygiene, oral hygiene, nutrition, HIV/AIDs, and then CPR. In Ghana they really do not have a system set up like we do in America with basic life support. They do not teach everyone or possibly anyone CPR. It is very interesting. The nursing students loved getting to learn these new skills and it was really awesome being able to teach them these life saving skills.
After teaching we were able to split up and visit different wards throughout the hospital. I went to the pediatric ward. Here I was able to talk to a nurse who told me that 70-80% of all the cases that come in are due to malaria, anemia secondary to malaria, or yellow fever. These are definitely different cases then we see at Primary Children's. Hardly ever do we treat for any of these diseases, so it gives a different perspective of what is prevalent in different areas of the world.
An experience for us on the way to the hospital was that our bus broke down, something was wrong with the brakes. We just pulled over to a shop on the side of the road and they started working on it right away. It took about an hour to an hour and a half, but at the completion the price for the work was only 30 cedi (that equals about 15 US dollars)! We all we completely shocked.
Another fun experience of the day was getting to see the dorm rooms of the nursing students. Some of us needed to use the bathroom so a student took us up to use the one in their dorms. They had a prefects room, which was fun to see and then there are just a bunch of tiny rooms all up and down the halls with a bathroom at the end. I wish I could accurately describe the bathrooms. At the dorms they actually have toilets, but they didn't flush so someone had to come 'flush' them for us and there wasn't a sink (thank goodness for hand sanitizer). I could tell they had showers but as to what they looked like or how they worked I'm not quite sure. I am so grateful for toilets. There are not toilets everywhere here in Ghana. Most times when we are just out about the town we have to squat on cement and pee on the ground. Sometimes there are doors, sometimes not. There rarely is toilet paper, so thank goodness for travel toilet paper!
After teaching we were able to split up and visit different wards throughout the hospital. I went to the pediatric ward. Here I was able to talk to a nurse who told me that 70-80% of all the cases that come in are due to malaria, anemia secondary to malaria, or yellow fever. These are definitely different cases then we see at Primary Children's. Hardly ever do we treat for any of these diseases, so it gives a different perspective of what is prevalent in different areas of the world.
An experience for us on the way to the hospital was that our bus broke down, something was wrong with the brakes. We just pulled over to a shop on the side of the road and they started working on it right away. It took about an hour to an hour and a half, but at the completion the price for the work was only 30 cedi (that equals about 15 US dollars)! We all we completely shocked.
Another fun experience of the day was getting to see the dorm rooms of the nursing students. Some of us needed to use the bathroom so a student took us up to use the one in their dorms. They had a prefects room, which was fun to see and then there are just a bunch of tiny rooms all up and down the halls with a bathroom at the end. I wish I could accurately describe the bathrooms. At the dorms they actually have toilets, but they didn't flush so someone had to come 'flush' them for us and there wasn't a sink (thank goodness for hand sanitizer). I could tell they had showers but as to what they looked like or how they worked I'm not quite sure. I am so grateful for toilets. There are not toilets everywhere here in Ghana. Most times when we are just out about the town we have to squat on cement and pee on the ground. Sometimes there are doors, sometimes not. There rarely is toilet paper, so thank goodness for travel toilet paper!
nice to know you are getting your daily exercise in doing all those squats! fun times, em. what an interesting contrast to the last hospital. i could not imagine NOT knowing BLS. how horrifying to just stand by and watch someone die and not know you could do anything. amazing.
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