Reflection on the Hospital

Last week was my fourth week at the Central Regional Hospital in Cape Coast. I am switching away from the medical placement and will be teaching at a school in town for the rest of my time here. The hospital has been a great experience and has provided me with valuable insight into medical care in a third world country; however, my role in the hospital has been largely observational and I have really enjoyed the time I’ve spent interacting with the children here. So, I think teaching in a school is going to be a fun way to round out my experience in Ghana.

While the memories and thoughts are still fresh, I thought I’d take the opportunity now to reflect on my time at the hospital. Before coming to Ghana, I had thought that this experience would confirm a desire of mine to come back in the future and work in a third world country as a physician (if I ever make it that far). I can say now that it both has, and it hasn’t, convinced me to return.

I cannot see myself coming back to a place like this and working in their health care system. It is so inefficient and seems, amazingly, overstaffed. More importantly, it provides health care only to those who can afford it, which is not many. I would be so frustrated by this system and, likely, feel like I was wasting time – why not just stay at home, where there is also a shortage of physicians, and do at least ten times the amount of work? The level of care is also not comparable to that at home. There is very little respect for patients, and confidentiality is completely non-existent. In these unexpected ways, this experience has slightly discouraged me from something like this in the future.

On the other hand, I can see myself coming back to provide health care and medicine to those who would not otherwise receive any – in the form of a free clinic or something – run by people from developed countries and not overstaffed with under-qualified nurses. Though, the thing I’ve enjoyed the most during my time here has been the opportunity to get to know a different culture and to interact and live with local people. I wonder how much of that experience you’d miss out on if you came to a foreign country and worked only with a group of Western professionals.