In March 2020, I will be returning to Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH), a referral hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, to work in the pediatric wards. This project will be a predominantly clinical rotation. I completed my first clinical rotation at KCH in April of 2019 and plan to return this upcoming spring as well as the year after. The pediatric wards have about 215 beds and collectively admit more than 27,000 patients per year.
The majority of my time at KCH will be spent in the Emergency Zone. In the Emergency Zone, residents work alongside local medical officers, interns, and medical students to care for often critically ill patients. In addition to interviewing and examining patients, residents also take vital signs, set up respiratory support, administer breathing treatments, and administer blood and medications. We predominantly communicate with and educate patient families through the assistance of medical students who translate for us. While working with medical students, we are able to teach components of history taking, physical exam skills, diagnosis and disease management.
While at KCH, I plan to work with a local mentor to identify a quality improvement project to work on this year and next.
As detailed above, the pediatric wards at KCH collectively admit more than 27,000 pediatric patients per year. KCH serves as a referral hospital for children in the region.
I hope to positively impact the care pediatric patients receive at KCH and also to add to the medical education that students receive at KCH. While I am interested in starting a quality improvement project, I want to ensure it will be a project that is appropriate and valuable to KCH and the children it serves.
Unfortunately, my time at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe, Malawi was cut short by the pandemic. I was only able to spend two of my anticipated four weeks working on the pediatric wards. Because my time was cut short, my work on this trip was solely clinical. It was an honor to work with the children and parents at KCH as well as learn from and work along side with local residents and medical officers. I look forward to returning in the future!
