{"id":7727,"date":"2018-01-20T14:50:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T13:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/?p=7727"},"modified":"2024-02-15T11:30:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T10:30:47","slug":"my-placement-story-in-ghana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2018\/01\/20\/my-placement-story-in-ghana\/","title":{"rendered":"My placement story in Ghana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work the World<\/a> was recommended to me by BU, and it seemed like the best choice as food and accommodation were included, and the entire placement is planned for you. I just had to book my own flights! I received a grant from Bournemouth University<\/a>, called the Global Horizons Fund<\/a>, which meant flights and other expenses were covered, which made a huge difference to the overall cost of the trip.<\/p>\n

I chose Ghana as I wanted to go to Africa, and I\u2019d never been before \u2013 I thought it would be the best time to experience the country, and get a real feel for a different culture away from home comforts.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>

Me at my placement<\/p><\/div>\n

We arrived in Takoradi on our second day and had our city orientation with Frank, he showed us around the hospital. It was very different from the UK \u2013 the wards are a traditional layout, long and straight, in the UK we have bays and there are usually 6 patients in one bay, whereas this was around 20 across a long room. The A&E (where I took my placement) was a lot smaller than the one in the UK.<\/p>\n

All of the staff were very welcoming. We asked lots of questions and showed interest in the staff and patients, which helped us quickly become part of the team.<\/em> I saw a lot of children in road traffic accidents, more than I would see in the UK. I also noticed that these patients didn\u2019t arrive as \u201ccleaned up\u201d as they would be in the UK. The paramedics don\u2019t have the time or resource before they bring them to A&E. I definitely found the malaria, TB and cholera cases particularly interesting \u2013 as I had never seen these at home \u2013 someone even came in with a monkey bite.<\/p>\n

There were definitely visible differences between Takoradi and home. They don\u2019t respond to emergencies with the same urgency that we do, which I had already been told about, but it\u2019s certainly a cultural difference, as the Ghanaians seem very calm in day-to-day life. Another difference was how the staff and next of kin dealt with death, outward emotions weren\u2019t displayed quite the same. As a nurse, you\u2019re not expected to provide emotional support for physical injuries, such as comforting someone in pain.<\/p>\n

The staff\u2019s resourcefulness was a huge eye-opener: we reused things like oxygen masks (disposable in UK \u2013 normally one per patient or staff), whereas in the hospital there was one adult-sized mask and one child-sized mask for a whole department. Patients with broken bones would have their breaks set with blocks of cardboard.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>

This is me in one of the hospital operating rooms<\/p><\/div>\n

Day-to-day tasks were a mixture between observational and practical. The first week in A&E was observation based, but later on I could help triage the patients and provide the doctor with an assessment, including the urgency of their case and then also observe them while they were in A&E, all under supervision.<\/p>\n

My placement definitely made me more resourceful, and I have a far greater awareness of the cost of equipment we use in hospitals at home. I also gained a greater appreciation for my home healthcare system. It was very insightful to see patients with malaria; I am now more confident in spotting the signs, so I definitely learned practical skills as well as cultural.\u00a0I feel more confident in reacting to emergencies, something which will certainly help me in my future career.<\/p>\n

We all had weekly language lessons with a local teacher, and I picked up a few phrases, including all basics. We learned the important phrases that you\u2019d need in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>

Me on a very thin bridge!<\/p><\/div>\n

When it came to planning weekends, Frank and Joe, the Programme Managers, were really helpful. Our first weekend in Ghana, we went to the stilted village, Nzulezo \u2013 in a canoe. It was very interesting to see life in rural Ghana. We also went to Africa Beach, which was lovely. One weekend we went to a safari at Mole National Park, it was truly amazing.<\/p>\n

A placement is definitely worth doing, it\u2019s an investment and hard work, but it\u2019s such a good experience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarah Mabbott
\nBSc Adult Nursing<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These blogs are produced by students, for prospective students, to reflect topics in which we think you will be interested. Our student bloggers work with Bournemouth University when producing any content. However, the university cannot be held liable for its accuracy and the views expressed are their own, and do not necessarily represent those of Bournemouth University. Please contact us at futurestudents@bournemouth.ac.uk<\/a> to report any content considered offensive.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Work the World was recommended to me by BU, and it seemed like the best choice as food and accommodation were included, and the entire placement is planned for you. I just had to book my own flights! I received a grant from Bournemouth University, called the Global Horizons Fund, which meant flights and other… Read more » about My placement story in Ghana<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":7755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1658,336],"tags":[423,319,654,814,337,188],"class_list":["post-7727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-archive","category-blogs-archive","tag-adult-nursing","tag-global-horizons-fund","tag-global-placements","tag-nursing","tag-placement","tag-study-abroad"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7727"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25761,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7727\/revisions\/25761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}