Clinical Psychology Programme in Ghana

Meet Alex, a student studying to be a nurse who volunteered with our project in Ghana for two weeks. Alex and her friend Lora volunteered through the Vocational Impact medical placement and worked at the clinic in Senya-Beraku, where Alex worked in the maternity ward and Lora worked with mental health. Alex had done some travelling before, but told us that her experience in Ghana was unlike anything she’d ever done before. This trip was particularly special for Alex, because this is the type of work she wants to continue doing once she finishes her degree. Alex started by telling us about a typical day of volunteering “We’d wake up at about seven, and they come with breakfast anywhere between six and half seven, so you sort of have to be up. The first day we got to the clinic for quarter to eight, but they weren’t really doing anything because they don’t really pick up the pace until half past eight, because they do a big worship all together.” The clinic lead then decided where they needed us to go with the clinic lead. Lauren took a real interest in the mental health side, whereas I'm a lot more clinical with what I enjoy, so I spent a lot of time with midwifery and I really liked that there. “I got to see a lot and get involved in a lot of varied stuff. We’d do that and then we’d head back home at around twelve for lunch. By the time we finished lunch, we’d go back up to the clinic. They’d be winding down, they seem to close up about two, and then everyone’s gone. As school finished, then we’d go up to the children’s home for the afternoon. That was really good, we really liked doing that spending time with the kids up there. And I think it broke up the day a bit so we weren’t always doing the same thing.” What happens when someone comes into the clinic? The volunteers witnessed a man who had been run over and had really bad skin abrasions that were treated but because the clinic did not have an x-ray machine, the patient was sent on his way after his cuts were cleaned up If you don’t have medical insurance the patients won’t get treated The nurses at the clinic get paid a fair wage for their job in comparison to the amount needed to live in Ghana In the NHS you have a mattress with a cover that you wipe down after every patient, in Ghana they only have foam beds where infection control is not their top priority. Since Alex and Lora went to Ghana for their medical elective, we were interested in hearing more about their work in the clinic “I spent a lot of time in the maternity ward. We spent two days weighing the babies and making notes like that, and then an entire day doing the registration of them and registering them online. Lots of vaccinating the babies and the mums when they come in, and checking up on bumps and things.” “We did a day in vitals at the wound care, and seeing how they handle things. And then we went to labs, and that was really interesting, seeing how they check for malaria and tetanus.” We did loads, they really do take you on an and throw you into the deep end. “With the deliveries, we watched one and then I watched another, and then for the next one, they were like, “alright, you do it and we’ll guide you”. “They’re all so lovely at the clinic, they do all want to help you. And they want you to stay for as long as you can, because I think they like the extra pair of hands there.” “There’s not many places in the clinic, so we tried everything. We were comfortable enough to go and do our own thing. Laura was ok with going off with mental health and I was ok with going off with midwife, and we didn’t feel like we needed to be attached at the hip. And then we’d see each other in the evening and catch up.” We dealt with hundreds of babies whilst in Ghana They weighed the babies to monitor their progression The midwives were quite strict about babies losing weight and make sure the mothers are taking care of them properly The student nurses were there to support the midwives Alex and Lora are both studying nursing at the University of East Anglia university, so we wanted to hear a bit about how this experience related to Alex’s career plans and her studies: “When I’m qualified, this is what I want to do. I want to go out and carry on this sort of thing. So for me, it was ideal going and making sure it was what I wanted to still do, because I thought “well if I go out and hate it, then there’s no point in me finishing my degree”. But luckily I really enjoyed it.” “We’re in the middle of our degree right now, and you’re at the point where you’re run down and don’t want to do anymore. We went to Ghana and I think it’s given me a lot of motivation to finish.” For me, when I do apply for permanent jobs doing this sort of thing, I'll have experience, which will be really helpful for me. We were also so happy to hear that Alex would recommend volunteering in Ghana to a friend. It exceeded our expectations “Especially for Lora, she was really really nervous about going, and I was nervous too. We didn’t really know what it was going to be like. I was worried we would feel quite nervous about being on our own in the house with someone we didn’t know, but we felt safe. And the clinic really got you involved and you were quite independent. I thought it would be a lot of shadowing, but it was a lot of independence. We really loved it. We really enjoyed the independence. It’s quite nice when they give you things to do. We felt like we had actually given a hand and been helpful” We met other people from other organisations and realised how lucky we had been to find Vocational Impact. People were paying huge amounts of money and not getting nowhere near what we were getting.

Jamie, an aspiring nurse, spent four weeks volunteering in Ghana. Here, she tells her story of working side-by-side with the community of Senya-Beraku, an experience which not only influenced her career path but also had a major impact on her view of life. What did your volunteer work consist of? We went to the project in the morning and helped where they needed us. While we were at there, we would help clean it, so we would sweep, mop, and wipe the windows. We would also play with the kids and give them the love and affection they needed, and a bit more of that kind of attention. When we were done, we could go back to the volunteer house and do whatever we liked. On one of the last days, we even took the day off to go to the beach. I also did a bit of teaching there while I was there; just a math class. Whatever you’re capable of doing, you can do it if you’re comfortable with it. A girl I was volunteering with was from Mexico and she did some of the English classes with the Grade 1s. We also played with the kids at the daycare; that was tiring though! What were your expectations before starting? Did these match up to your experience when you had finished? I think my expectation before I started was that I wanted to feel that I made a difference somehow in the kids life. I don’t know if they matched up to my expectations because I found that when you’re only there for such a short amount of time you can’t really make that much of a difference. It does help to have that extra attention and support there, but at the same time, the kids need more long-term relationships. It’s always hard when you leave because you can see that they’re sad. However, I’d say expectation wise, it kind of exceeded them because I saw more of a change in myself through them. Can you describe that change in yourself? I’m in nursing school and one of the things I wanted to do with my nursing degree was work for Nurses without Borders and help people in developing countries. I feel like there’s a lot of people in western cultures that want to create a lifestyle similar to their own in these developing countries, but I find that’s not what they need. The people more so just need things like clean water, road construction, and improved healthcare and education systems, and I think that’s what the real focus is and the focus isn’t on them having flat screen TVs and things like that. So I would say the change in myself was that it made me focus less on the materialistic things I need in my life and more on creating connections with people. I found that I didn’t even want to come home because the people there were so much happier and more joyful and more welcoming than people here who have so much more. So I would say that was one of the things that changed, and also just a change in what I want to do in my career. So do you still want to be a nurse? Yeah, I’m going into my fourth year as a nurse, it’s just more so what I want to do when I’m done. So how did this experience impact your career path? And would you say it’s helped in your schooling and career at all? Yeah, I would say it helped. It does look kind of good on a CV, in the sense that I’ve been to a country like that and done some work. I found that it also helps direct me in the way that I interact with my patients and it gave me a more of a clear idea of where I want to work and that kind of thing. When I’m done with school, I probably need to gather all of my skills in Canada and get that all figured out, but I do still want to work somewhere like Ghana that needs that extra assistance, and I’ll be able to stay for longer periods of time. So why should someone choose to volunteer in Ghana over somewhere else? I haven’t been anywhere else, so I’m not 100% sure. But Ghana is a mostly English-speaking country, so that provides one less barrier. You also just feel safe there. Like my mom was always texting me asking if I was ok and I was like, I’m not texting you because I literally feel so safe that I feel no need to let you know how I’m doing. Me and the other volunteers (there were nine girls in the house), went on adventures on our own too, and throughout that whole time, there was never a time where I felt unsafe. So I think that was one of the greatest things. And the people there are just so warm and so welcoming, I always tell people they should go to Ghana. So did you get to explore Ghana at all? Yeah! So the first week as volunteers, we got to go to Cape Coast. We took this big bus, so we all met up, drove to Cape Coast, and stayed at a hostel for the night. While we were there, we got to go on a canopy walk, which was really cool, and we got to go to the castle and learn a lot about slavery. We also had our own time to explore around, so some of us went down and got street food or went to the little shops and stuff and brought people’s artwork. There was a little club thing there, so there was music and dancing at night. We also got to interact a lot with the locals that day. The second weekend we went to Wli, where there are waterfalls. It took us so long to get there, about nine and a half hours. I think it was three tro tros and one taxi, and there were nine of us in this one taxi! So we all piled in and we went to these waterfalls and stayed at another hostel. We went hiking the next day and then we came back. It was really nice. On the way back, our tro tro driver had bread, and he did a baboon call and all these baboons came and he fed them the bread, so it was pretty cool to see that too. So yeah, we got to explore a bit and interact with the locals. What would you say was the most impactful moment from your volunteer experience overall? I don’t know that I could say there was one single moment that was most impactful…I think just the whole trip! I came back and people would ask me how it was and I just said it was amazing because I couldn’t sum up everything – my thoughts were so jumbled. I said to the girls that it’s amazing how many memories we packed into a two week span. So maybe I would just say the thing that I took away the most was trying to bring that sense of human connection that they have over here to Canada. I find that everyone there lives so simply but so happily. I’m trying to bring that joy and what I learned there back here to share with people. Also, just the love and the kindness from the kids, and their openness, because they’re so welcoming. They don’t even know you, and the first time they see you they run up to you and give you a hug. So probably that. It was amazing how in two weeks, you develop these relationships with these kids. I want to go back so bad; if I could I’d be back this summer 100%.