December 5th, 2019 by Elaina Truax Russo

Week 1 at Kijabe is almost over and we have gotten over the jet lag and are feeling more settled. This week I was in the pediatric outpatient clinic. I do not have access to the computer system yet, so I worked with one of the interns this week seeing patients. We saw a good mix of pediatric cases, many similar to what I have seen at home. There were a few malnourished kiddos, but the clinic has a nutrition center and keeps close tabs on them. The intern I worked with was a rockstar in regards to seeing patients and it was really nice to learn from her about how the system works and the resources the are available. The majority of appointments are walk-in, meaning that we never know what the day will hold. The nice things is, it is not just the primary care offices that are walk-in, but referral services are as well. Therefore, most referrals are seen same day, or at least the same week, which is really nice. For example, if we needed a child to see ENT, we would put in the consult and send them to the ENT building to be seen. This is different than at home as it may take a month or so to set up this appointment.

Overall, Kijabe is a well-oiled machine. It is a teaching hospital so they have residents and consultants (attendings) just like back home. They have lab capabilities, CT scan, an electronic medical record, physiotherapy services, dental, nutrition, plastic surgery, and the list goes on. It really is amazing.

The sureounding land is beautiful! We usually see monkeys on our walk to work which is a lot of fun. We’ve been told to not forget to close our windows at night as the monkeys are known to enter homes and cause a mess. We have not forgotten these words of wisdom!

Tonight is our first night on call. We are a little nervous as we are not quite sure what to expect. It will be good to get the first one done and it is nice that Dan and I can do it together.