A lot of times when people go to dramatically foreign places, at the end of their stay they say “Its very different, but still very much the same.” After four weeks here, I would agree with the first part. Everything here is different, the hospital, the smells, the transportation, the dancing, even the milk is different. Differences aside, my stay in Kenya has been unbelievable and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to come here.
The experience has been both challenging and rewarding and nothing has embodied those two feelings more than rounding at the Nyayo wards. While I sift through the charts, track down missing treatment sheets, and request labs for the third straight day I switch from feeling like I’m really making a difference in patient care and feeling like I’m watching a car wreck that I’m powerless to stop. It’s very hard to see patients suffer day after day without the ability to fix the situation. So many problems could be solved if care here paralleled care back at home. That being said, good things are going on in the hospital and focusing on these makes each day more than worth while.
Some days the most I feel I do is ensure a patient gets fluids and check that their treatment sheet is present and accounted for. Other days, I’m part of making sure that a patient receives TB medications that mysteriously disappeared from the treatment sheet, starting a patient with a CD4 count of 5 on anti-retrovirals, getting needed chemotherapy or an emergency surgery consult. Needless to say, the latter days are more rewarding. Claiming that I was responsible for all of these interventions would be both selfish and disheartening. It is selfish because I my role in many of these situations is strictly the whistle blower, and disheartening because I’m leaving in two weeks.
Luckily the people who are truly responsible for the good that goes on are not transitional. Both Americans and Kenyans involved with AMPATH are so dedicated to improving health care in Eldoret. It is such an inspiration to be working with people who are here to make forward and lasting changes in Eldoret. While my future is anything but clear, I don’t see myself returning to Eldoret. However, I know that Eldoret will stay with me. The red dirt will wash off and the memories of the smells will recede but I hope that the call to action and the inspiration to change will stay with me.
I started this entry mentioning differences. The main difference is that I have been given the opportunity to see first hand the difference one person can make in other’s lives. I hope that when I go home, I can do that as well.
Written by Colleen Drasga,
PharmD candidate 2008
Purdue University School of Pharmacy
The experience has been both challenging and rewarding and nothing has embodied those two feelings more than rounding at the Nyayo wards. While I sift through the charts, track down missing treatment sheets, and request labs for the third straight day I switch from feeling like I’m really making a difference in patient care and feeling like I’m watching a car wreck that I’m powerless to stop. It’s very hard to see patients suffer day after day without the ability to fix the situation. So many problems could be solved if care here paralleled care back at home. That being said, good things are going on in the hospital and focusing on these makes each day more than worth while.
Some days the most I feel I do is ensure a patient gets fluids and check that their treatment sheet is present and accounted for. Other days, I’m part of making sure that a patient receives TB medications that mysteriously disappeared from the treatment sheet, starting a patient with a CD4 count of 5 on anti-retrovirals, getting needed chemotherapy or an emergency surgery consult. Needless to say, the latter days are more rewarding. Claiming that I was responsible for all of these interventions would be both selfish and disheartening. It is selfish because I my role in many of these situations is strictly the whistle blower, and disheartening because I’m leaving in two weeks.
Luckily the people who are truly responsible for the good that goes on are not transitional. Both Americans and Kenyans involved with AMPATH are so dedicated to improving health care in Eldoret. It is such an inspiration to be working with people who are here to make forward and lasting changes in Eldoret. While my future is anything but clear, I don’t see myself returning to Eldoret. However, I know that Eldoret will stay with me. The red dirt will wash off and the memories of the smells will recede but I hope that the call to action and the inspiration to change will stay with me.
I started this entry mentioning differences. The main difference is that I have been given the opportunity to see first hand the difference one person can make in other’s lives. I hope that when I go home, I can do that as well.
Written by Colleen Drasga,
PharmD candidate 2008
Purdue University School of Pharmacy
