Medical School

Today was suddenly much warmer. We traveled to Ku Berle Lu School of Nursing and Mid-Wifery. We had a brief presentation and learned about it’s founding in the mid-20th century. It has evolved from providing initial licenses to providing full degrees in Nursing. Up until two or there years ago the nursing program was free and the students received a stipend to live on while they were in school. After graduating they were required to work for 5 years in one of the governmental hospitals. However, they recently changed that so that students can choose where they work when they graduate. however, the students now have to finance the education themselves. Apparently this change occurred with the election of a new government.

The school offers Initial licenses after three years of course work. When you graduate you can work as an auxiliary nurses. After that period you can return to the school to earn a full diploma. They also have a hybrid program that runs in the summer for Nurses who earned their certificate and have worked for at least three (I think) years as Auxiliary Nurses. I believe the program runs 12 weeks for two summers— many of the days course work starts at 6:00 am and go until 6:00 pm with an hour break for lunch. These students are determined! 

Two of our students on the tour

Student Hostels where they stay during the school year.

While the school is made up of both men and women the principle noted that the gentlemen are always destroying things or causing general mayhem. After the presentation we took an elongated walking tour of the facilities and then we were able to spend about a half an hour meeting with some of the nursing students. I spoke with Ester. She is 28 and has worked for the past five years in two or three different Hospitals as an Auxiliary Nurse. She is originally from Northern Ghana and has now worked in nearly every region of the country.   The student my group met with were all in their final year of the summer program and were fairly quiet. However, the other groups met with some younger students who were very enthusiastic and wanted to take photos with everyone.

We had a visitor at lunch...

After a late lunch (which is quickly becoming normal) we headed over to the University of Ghana Medical school where we met with four or five different medical school students. In Ghana to become a doctor most students elect to attend medical school right out of high school. They spend three years studying the core sciences (a period they call pre-lab* I can’t remember the word). After three years they move on to the core medical school courses and work along side doctors in the hospitals. Often after they graduate medical school they work for one or two years as interns at one of the four or five teaching hospitals in Ghana. When the medical school opened about 10% of the students were women. Today that number has grown to 50%. 

Some of our students with one of the medical school students. They loved getting to know her.

After meeting with these students we went to dinner at an expensive place called Honeysuckle. It’s Ghana’s version of an American Sports Bar. I watched some tennis while enjoying some spaghetti and some sort of fake meat sauce. The tomato based sauces all have the distinct flavor of a chili fusion; spicy but tasty.

 Tomorrow will be another full day— so until then— good night.