Electives In Ghana

In Takoradi, you’ll come across unfamiliar conditions like diabetic gangrene (and the resulting amputations), typhoid psychosis, and acute malaria. Naturally, you’ll gain experience in familiar areas like A&E, general medicine, orthopaedics and ENT, but the approach to delivering care will differ massively from what you’re used to. The hospital’s HIV clinic draws around 400 patients each week — you can get heavily involved in this area should you choose. You can also get experience in the clinical laboratory that provides diagnoses, screened blood, and safe blood products.

Our partner hospitals in Ghana are extremely welcoming to Work the World students, making for fantastic placements and supervision across the board. Areas like female and male surgical are popular (female surgical doubles as a paediatric department), but there is also opportunity to do some community outreach depending on your field of interest. You will also be able to spend time in reproductive health clinics, or out in the community weighing babies. NICU is a busy department, as is A&E where there are regularly many cases of major trauma. Please note that we cater to all branches of nursing.

Midwives in Ghana can expect an exceptional clinical experience. Within our partner hospitals and clinics, you can attend live births, and potentially assist with both prenatal and postnatal care. Caesarean sections are more common in Ghana than they are in the UK, which is also the case for breech births. You’ll also see that many patients don’t receive prenatal care at all. For cultural reasons, it’s also common that many women are expected to give birth in silence. Many practises will differ to the way you have been trained, but remember: you are here to observe and absorb new information and new skills. This is one of the many reasons why a placement with Work the World is so unique.

The regional hospital with which we are partnered has a busy physiotherapy department, functioning primarily as an outpatient unit. It is professionally staffed and well equipped by West African standards. The outpatient unit handles up to 20 cases per day, the majority of which are regular patients who attend a few times each week. In this department you’ll encounter cases like strokes, post-operative rehabilitation, Bell's palsy, and Erb's palsy. Treatment is focused on the use of gym equipment and creating plans for patients. The aim is for patients to carry out the necessary exercises in the comfort of their own home.

Your paramedic science elective takes place in the largest and best-equipped hospital in Takoradi. But that doesn’t mean it’s well equipped compared to what you’re used to. You will be in an open plan A&E with separate areas for paediatrics and minor surgery. That said, the lines between these areas blur when things get busy, which is often. You can even spend time with local Ghanaian students, sharing skills and stories. You will also see how even the smallest differences in local Ghanaian culture impact emergency care.

Radiography departments in Ghana are not as well equipped as they are in the UK. This means you have the opportunity to gain experience with things like developing X-ray on film. It is common for patients to be referred to these hospitals from smaller clinics in the surrounding community. This means you can get experience observing and analysing a wide range of conditions from patients from an equally diverse range of backgrounds. Procedures you can expect to observe and conduct include fractures, tuberculosis, hysterosalpingograms, barium meals, ureothograms, and fistulagram.

Pharmacy placements in Ghana will live up to, if not surpass your expectations. Spending time with your supervisors, you will experience a very clinically focused placement. You’ll also undertake ward rounds and require a number of new skills along the way. It’s also possible for you to gain experience outside of the hospital in a community pharmacy, which will provide insight into a completely different side of pharmaceutical provision. What’s more you’ll observe the inner workings of a lab where medicines like unbranded aspirin are made.

Clinical experience for dentists in Ghana is an entirely unique experience. Learning from specialists in our partner hospitals is never dull—you could get to grips with everything from preventive health checks, to taking part in observational placements in ENT. Under certain circumstances it’s also possible to head into the community on outreach projects.