I will travel to Lilongwe, Malawi Africa February 2nd-April 10th 2025 to work in the Department of Paediatrics at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH). This trip is a rotation that is part of my Combined Pediatric Emergency Medicine – Global Health (PEM-GH) fellowship training. This is my third trip to Malawi, where I am a fully licensed pediatrician. I will help guide clinical, educational and research efforts related to caring for acutely ill children within the KCH Department of Pediatrics. Specifically I will participate in the call schedule as a consultant physician. I will lead rounds and help provide oversight and teaching to local trainees. I will also participate in didactic teaching of medical students and interns in the field of pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine.
Malawi has just over 40 pediatricians serving a population of over 20 million. There is no well child or routine pediatrician visit structure in Malawi, which means patients often present with disease later in their illness course and with severe disease. The Department of Paediatrics at KCH is the largest in the hospital with a census of 300-400 patients who face high morbidity and mortality rates. As the central referral hospital for the country we care for common conditions such as malaria, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, malnutrition as well as complex congenital and rheumatic heart disease, tuberculosis, new oncologic diagnoses, HIV, and many more.
In addition to direct patient care, I expect to have a positive impact on my colleagues in Malawi. I will help alleviate call duties for local pediatricians. I will also encourage local trainee growth and development as future physicians who will eventually join the workforce in country. I expect to grow as a clinician and improve my fund of knowledge of the care and management of tropical diseases. I will have the benefit of working with colleagues who are different from me culturally and went through a different medical training structure. As I continue to spend time in Malawi longitudinally throughout my fellowship, I am gaining skills in how to build capacity and do sustainable global health work as a United States physician.
I had a very successful trip to Lilongwe, Malawi where I worked at one of the tertiary referral hospitals as a pediatric consultant. I was able to help the team on the ground manage a very heavy patient load during this busy malaria season. I also had the opportunity to participate in multiple training sessions and lectures.
I created a low-cost phantom for practicing IVs and did a workshop with the local pediatric residents on ultrasound guided IV placement.
I also led a session on pediatric resuscitation and PALs using low fidelity simulation tools with interns rotating through the pediatric wards. Additionally, we worked on a “train the trainer” session to help the senior residents and clinical officers become more comfortable teaching resuscitation so they can continue to teach incoming interns on the wards.
I was so grateful for the opportunity to come work clinically at KCH as well as continue to build capacity via teaching and mentorship.
