As promised, clinical is at the top of the order.\u00a0 Today we saw a 3 y.o. with sickle cell and a hgb of 8.2.\u00a0 This was up from a recent visit when it was only 7.3.\u00a0 So the little guy is making progress.\u00a0 He actually didn’t look as sick as this sounds!\u00a0 We had an unfortunate 8 y.o. that came in about 6:30 am from a motor vehicle accident.\u00a0 She was hit by an SUV type vehicle.\u00a0 She sustained a broken femur and a broken pelvis (quite clear on the x-rays).\u00a0 This little sweetheart went to the OR for casting (they call it POP, or plaster of paris), and then she went to paediatrics for traction.\u00a0 Of course we had various and sundry abdominal pains and food poisoning.\u00a0 There is an area nearby where there is apparently a lot of mining and many incidents of poisoning come in from there due to contaminated food and water.\u00a0 I think the poison is a phosphorus base.\u00a0 We treated malaria, first line drug used here is artemisinin followed by quinine.\u00a0 All of this is fascinating because so much of what we see here is so different than in the west.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was interesting to find out today that about half of the nursing classes are men.\u00a0 It really shows in this hospital as there are so many more men on the staff than I would normally see in the states.\u00a0 General nursing education is 3 years.\u00a0 If a nurse wants to specialize in something, for instance emergency, they go on to another 15 months of school, 10 months of classroom followed by 5 months of clinical rotation.\u00a0 I have worked with two different providers in the last two days.\u00a0 The respect between providers and nursing staff is refreshing.\u00a0 All in all, the nursing staff has much autonomy here.\u00a0 Good to see.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the midst of everything I am having lots of fun!\u00a0\u00a0The staff in the ED are great and they let me\u00a0contribute in the care for whatever comes in the door.\u00a0 You name it, and it is different here, everything from IV supplies to many ampule vials for medications.\u00a0\u00a0Standard treatments for the region\u00a0are becoming evident.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I wish I was a rich man and could provide much needed\u00a0equipment for the hospital.\u00a0 There are so many items that we take for granted in the states in order to give standard of care for cardiac emergencies\u00a0(defibrillator) and\u00a0imaging (how about a portable\u00a0x-ray machine).\u00a0 But the care these people get\u00a0is excellent and I am so impressed with the talented staff.\u00a0 Perhaps modern medicine doesn’t need all the bells and whistles that\u00a0we are so used to?\u00a0 Perhaps that just makes western healthcare out of reach from a financial standpoint?\u00a0 I will leave that\u00a0to you to ponder.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tomorrow I am in the operating theatre.\u00a0 Should be an awesome experience to see how surgery is done here in Ghana.\u00a0 I am getting to know providers and nursing staff alike.\u00a0 The ED has my phone number to call if something unique comes in.\u00a0 Going in is my choice but I will avail myself of new opportunities if I am able.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As promised, clinical is at the top of the order.\u00a0 Today we saw a 3 y.o. with sickle cell and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/dennissalter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}