I am a nurse practitioner and I work with pediatric surgeons at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital. I am going to Ghana with a pediatric surgeon, an adult surgeon, and two medical students. We will be providing surgical services to the pediatric patient population in Ghana. I am also trained to be a registered nurse first assist and will be assisting with surgery. This is a remote area that does not have access to a pediatric surgeon, and we will be able to provide surgical services to the pediatric patient population in Ghana.
The pediatric population in Ghana will benefit from this project because they would otherwise not have access to a pediatric surgeon for surgical interventions that require a pediatric surgeon.
The impact is to provide surgical services to the pediatric patient population in Ghana. Currently there is no access to a pediatric surgeon and surgical team in that area. The experience will be brought back to Loma Linda University and further recruit volunteers to reach other areas of the world that need a pediatric surgeon and team to offer pediatric surgery services.
The pediatric and adult surgery group went to Ghana and visited Techiman. We were at a very small hospital and performed over 180 surgeries. The pediatric cases we did were mostly inguinal hernias and umbilical hernia repairs. The pediatric cases were over 40 patients that received surgery the week we were there. This was an amazing experience, and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go on this trip. The hospital was so thankful for everything that we did that week they gave us special smocks for a thank you gift.
