This trip is an elective that I will be taking as a member of the Prisma Health Midlands EM Residency Program. It is a month long elective where we work in an urban emergency department in Blantyre, Malawi at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. Queens is the largest hospital in the capital city of Blantyre. It is urban however still severely underserved and resource poor.
When I am there I will have my medical license from Malawi and will work as a physician in the Emergency Department, along side their staff. Queens has the first and only EM residency in Malawi. I will work along side them and bring my knowledge and experience but also learn from them.
Additionally we will bring extra supplies from our emergency department in Columbia, SC to help. We spend months collecting cervical collars, central line kits, intubation supplies, chest tube trays, medications and antibiotics, and anything that gets pulled out of our supplies but does not end up getting used.
Lastly we will work with their staff to help them learn and utilize ultrasound in the Emergency Department setting.
This is a long standing and sustainable relationship that we have with this hospital and will continue to grow and provide increased quality of care to the citizens of Blantyre and the surrounding area.
The community of Blantyre, Malawi and the surrounding area will be the ones of benefit the most from this project. this community used to not have great access to emergency care, but through our working relationship with the hospital we have been able to improve the quality of care there.
This is an important population because urban areas (even if they are still developing) deserve high quality emergency care and access to it. Helping grow the Emergency Department there will help the entire city and surrounding area.
Also the local residents and staff will benefit from us being there and sharing some of our knowledge and experience. The same as they will share their knowledge and experience with us.
The expected impact is the continued growth of the Emergency Department there. We hope to have a lasting impact in the quality of care delivered. Because this is a very well established relationship between Queens hospital and my residency program, it is assured that we will continue to send residents and attendings there and will continue to improve acute medical care in the area.
One of the long terms goals is to develop a true exchange program where the Queens EM residents rotate with us in Columbia SC, furthering their knowledge and experience.
For me, I hope to learn how to practice in a more resource limited setting. I think it is easy to take for granted the equipment, specialists, and tools we have at a tertiary care center. I look forward to the challenge and opportunity. Additionally it will help me strengthen my clinical gestalt by operating without as many resources that I could almost consider as a crutch.
Lastly it will allow me to appreciate a culture I have never seen before. I have never been to Africa and I am looking forward to learning more about the people and communities. Living and working in the city for a month will provide me ample time to do that. I hope to return with a new found respect for the people, population, culture, and hospital staff there.
My global health trip to Malawi was incredible and it would not have been possible without the Doximity Foundation.
I definitely learned a lot. It was interesting coming from a resource rich country. I had to rely on the locally trained doctors to help me learn how to practice in their environment. It helped me hone my physical exam and history taking skills and required me to rely less on advanced tests or imaging. I obtained a much needed perspective on how other places practice medicine and I believe it will make me a better doctor.
Working with the local physicians was incredible. We exchanged knowledge to help each other out. The medicine they practice is still high quality medicine, but was so unique to their own environment. They taught me so much and in turn I tried to return the favor. We worked closely with them in conferences and simulation labs. I gave multiple lectures on areas that I have a strong fund of knowledge in. We also worked side by side in a pediatric resuscitation simulation lab, learning off of each other and strengthening all of our abilities. Lastly we brought two portable ultrasounds with us and deployed them every single day. the hospital there has a very old, but functional ultrasound, so we worked almost daily to help teach and demonstrate how bedside ultrasound can aid diagnosis and treatment. It was wonderful to see how engaged and willing to learn the local physicians were.
Lastly I think the people of Malawi were impacted. I was able to provide quality care when I was on shift, but the improvements and education we brought with us will hopefully have a lasting impact on patient care for years to come.
It was an incredible trip and I am already planning on trying to go back!
