During my global health elective in Kenya, I will join local pediatricians in providing inpatient and outpatient pediatric care at Thika Level 5 Hospital serving a medically underserved population. My focus will be on delivering high-quality, evidence-based clinical care in a resource-limited setting while strengthening collaborative education with Kenyan trainees and faculty. This experience will meaningfully contribute to eliminating inequities in global child health by increasing access to care and supporting local capacity. Bidirectional learning is a core objective and I hope to share clinical knowledge while gaining a deeper understanding of child health challenges in Kenya, including how cultural practices, resource availability, and community-based care shape outcomes.
My project will benefit children and families receiving care at Thika Level 5 Hospital, which is a site that serves a predominantly low-income, rural population with limited access to pediatric specialists and preventive health resources.
By supporting clinical care in this resource-limited setting, I aim to help improve outcomes for some of the most vulnerable pediatric patients by increasing access to care and supporting local capacity.
This population is central to the mission of our global health partnership: addressing preventable child deaths, improving quality of care, and advancing health in settings where the burden of disease is high yet resources remain limited. Working with this community is not only an opportunity to make an immediate impact on the children we care for, but also to contribute to long-term, sustainable improvements in pediatric health systems.
The expected impact of this project is both immediate and long-term. In the short term, my participation will support delivery of high-quality pediatric care in a resource-limited setting and contribute to ongoing quality improvement efforts aimed at improving health service delivery for high-burden childhood illnesses. By working alongside local clinicians and trainees, I will help strengthen bedside teaching, clinical decision-making, and implementation of context-appropriate practices that can be sustained beyond my presence.
The long-term impact lies in the skills, perspectives, and partnerships developed through this experience. Exposure to clinical care in resource-constrained settings will fundamentally shape how I approach diagnosis, management, and systems-based problem solving. The emphasis on quality improvement and implementation science will directly inform future work I plan to pursue in academic pediatrics, where I aim to address health inequities through education, research, and advocacy.
After returning to my residency program, I will carry these learnings forward by sharing insights with co-residents and faculty, particularly around resource-conscious care, global child health disparities, and culturally responsive medicine. The experience will also strengthen my commitment to a career in global health and health equity, reinforcing my goal of building sustainable partnerships and contributing to improvements in pediatric care both internationally and in underserved communities in the United States.
During my time in Kenya, my colleagues and I worked alongside local clinical providers as part of a longitudinal partnership that has strengthened over the last 10 years. We primarily spent time in two hospitals: Thika Level 5 Hospital and Cardinal Otunga Health Centre Mangu. At these sites, we learned from paediatric consultants and engaged in the teaching of local clinical officers, interns, medical students, and nursing staff, both at bedside and through formal CME sessions. Together, we worked to deliver high-quality care to newborns and children requiring all levels of care from routine health maintenance and vaccines to invasive procedures and critical care medicine. Through this collaboration, I believe we have contributed to an enduring strengthening of local clinical capacity for these communities that will long outlast our time there.
