Volunteering in a makeshift clinic in Ghana
By Sophia Veinoglou RN, BS, CEN,
Emergency Department Staff Nurse,
11 Round Hill Rd, Great Barrington, MA 01230
sophiaveinoglou@aol.com, (413) 644-6416
It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. An emergency
nurse in Western Massachusetts, I heard about a two week trip to
an African village in Ghana, close to the equator, with the Ghana
Health Mission ® and the University of Massachusetts Amherst
nursing department. This group gathers nursing students, medical
residents and registered nurses, setting out to Africa twice a
year to diagnose and treat patients with little health care.
After a month of preparation—vaccinations for yellow fever,
hepatitis A and meningococcal, prescriptions for anti malarial
pills and Levaquin, industrial strength insect repellent, OTC
medications and dressing supplies and bags of donated hotel style
soap, shampoos and lotions to give out at the clinic, I was
finally ready.
Our base in Ghana was a fishing town and our clinic was the
church of the Assembly of God. During the week the pews were
converted into exam tables and workstations, to be returned to
regular pews for church on Sunday. People lined up each morning
and through interpreters, we learned of each patient’s
complaints. Almost all of the adults and some of the teenagers
suffered neck and back pain from carrying heavy loads on their
head. Most of them also had visual changes, likely, the result of
exposure to bright sunlight and dusty terrain. Chloroquine for
malaria, Mabendazole for worms and jars of children’s
vitamins were frequently employed.
A teenager pauses to observe the blood pressure clinic.
As the days passed, we became adept at asking specific questions
related to malaria, worms and hypertension. We taught back
exercises, gave out sunglasses, reinforced the importance of oral
re-hydration with simple recipes of salt and sugar, and stressed
the need for regular worming. We even held a blood pressure
clinic in the fishing village and after high readings, the clinic
saw ninety-five patients the next day, the majority were women
seen the day before.
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Listening to a patient in the clinic
As visitors to Ghana, we were treated with the utmost respect.
Patients waited patiently with no complaints, sometimes for four
or five hours in the steamy heat. Children were inquisitive but
never disruptive.
Patients took nothing for granted. A simple Tylenol was welcome
by someone with back or neck pain. For one man who had been
treating a leg wound for twenty years, a pack of non-stick
dressings were worth their weight in gold. During the times when
there is no clinic, he washes the Telfa dressings daily, hanging
them on the line to dry. Everything has a value.
Beliefs vary in Ghana. Some make sense (e.g., breast-feeding is
widely encouraged. In fact it is against the law not to breast
feed during the first year). Others didn’t (e.g., if a child
is not born vaginally, it is said not to have a soul).
The most challenging aspect of the trip was working through
interpreters. I quickly learned the importance of looking at the
patient, not the interpreter, when talking. To look away or to
direct questions to the interpreter is to give the impression of
boredom or a lack of caring.
I left Ghana with memories of the welcoming, respectful people
there, the vivid colors and smells, the heat and physical
exhaustion that was so much a part of my experience there.
I found the trip so worthwhile, that I returned again this year,
preparing this time by focusing on tropical diseases,
hypertension and eye care. This time I paid special attention on
protecting my own health by wearing sneakers, as hook worms are
known to enter the body through the soles of the feet.
Inspired by the work that can be accomplished by nurses in
underdeveloped areas (both in the USA and abroad), I am going to
graduate school in September 2007 to become a FNP.
Main Street Takoradi, the nearest town.