Case Notes:
Jolien Veldhuizen
(Nursing, Tanzania )

I had briefly travelled through East Africa before which I had enjoyed and so I decided to focus on a country in this area. The University of Amsterdam does not offer any placements in this part of Africa, nor would they allow me to try and arrange the internship independently and stay there by myself. I therefore started to look for organizations that offered placements abroad. Immediately I came across Work the World and the more I read about them, the more enthusiastic I became. Since I would be living and working with other students and I’d have the support and back-up of the Work the World staff, I thought this might be a way to gain the approval from my university.

The placement settings seemed to be appropriate to obtain the required learning goals for the internship. I contacted Work the World to show my interest and to get more detailed information about possible settings and the application procedure. The Work the World staff were immediately able to give me detailed information and answer all of my questions.  My university is pretty strict; they required me to do quite a lot of assignments, to obtain certain learning goals, to be assessed on my level of competence and to receive enough supervision from a registered nurse. I had some concerns on how to achieve these requirements, but the Work the World staff in the UK were enormously helpful and even contacted my school in order to provide them with information.

The internship was approved and so I started making my final decision as to where I would be based. Although Work the World offers placements in several locations, Tanzania was an easy choice for me. So Arusha it was.

In November 2007 I arrived at Kilimanjaro airport to be picked up by Freddy, the Programme Representative. He brought me to the Work the World house where three other students were waiting for me. There was a lot of excitement and curiosity from my side, since Arusha was going to be my new home for the next six months, however I immediately felt at home. The following morning I was welcomed by Maryan; the house chef and again Freddy. I was given an extremely useful introduction to my new home and after that we went out and explored the city.

The next day I began my internship. I met Baptista (the Country Director for Work the World) in the morning and he took me and another student to Mount Meru Regional Hospital and gave us, together with the Medical Officer, a tour of the major departments. I decided to start my elective on the paediatric ward. It was initially quite shocking to experience the difference not only with the Netherlands, but with Cape Town as well, which was basically a European setting compared with what I saw in Arusha. Nevertheless I soon became accustomed to this new environment, mainly because of the great help and enthusiasm from the nursing staff and most of all the African nursing students.

Having completed my time on the paediatric ward I moved to the HIV/ AIDS education ward, which was an outpatient setting. I can describe this more as an experience than an actual practical placement. On a ward such as HIV/ AIDS education you want the patients to feel free to say whatever they want and to be able to ask all their questions in their own language. Since I didn’t speak Swahili it was difficult to communicate with the patients. This was, by the way, not the case on other wards, where most of the people spoke (some) English. Having said this it was still an extremely interesting and informative experience; not only because of the general nursing that was provided, but the public health aspects as well.

My third and final placement in the hospital was in the OBGYN Ward, which was amazing. I have a great interest in this specialty, so overall this was where I spent most of my time in the hospital. What I really liked was that there was the opportunity to do as much as you want, as long as you take initiative, but if I was not keen on particular parts of the work, I was allowed the step back and the staff respected this boundary.

Working in the hospital was interesting and well arranged placement however this was not the only thing that made my six month stay in Arusha so great. The Work the World staff were truly amazing. Baptista and Freddy, who were absolutely always there when you had questions, ideas or just as company during, for example, the well known weekly BBQ, that Maryan always superbly prepared.

The great variety of things to see and do in Tanzania obviously also contributed to my fantastic stay. Of all the national parks and beaches in and around Tanzania I must have only missed just a few, because I think in six months I have seen and done almost every possible thing on my wish list.

I had a great and unforgettable time in Arusha, thanks to Tanzania and its people, the Work the World staff, the hospital and my many great housemates whom I shared a lot of fun and long Arusha nights with.

I can absolutely recommend this to everyone who wants to combine an interesting and diverse placement where you can meet new people, there is the opportunity to travel and just to have lots of great fun.

Thanks for everything!