Last Day at Marquart Hospital

Today was my last day at Marquart Hospital. There really were not a lot of patients today. It’s funny because usually Mondays were the one day of the week that it was actually busy for me. It was good though because I was able to say goodbye to the administrator and medical director. The administrator asked for suggestions on how to improve the physiotherapy department. He wrote everything down, which made me happy. Also, he said they are in the process of contacting the vice president of Ghana Association of Physiotherapy to try and get a trained therapist at Marquart! I really hope it works out. As of right now, the Volta region only has 3 trained physiotherapists. Marquart would really be establishing themselves as one of the best if they could follow through on this advice!

I am proud of my time at Marquart Hospital. I can’t say I was busy or that all of my time was spent efficiently. However, things were accomplished. Celestine is now better trained than she was 3 months ago. Obviously, I cannot train someone to be a physiotherapist in 3 months, but she does have some new knowledge to help the patients.

Now, Celestine understands the importance of transfer and gait training with the ward patients. Before I came to the hospital, she was just doing ROM and bed exercises for physiotherapy with the ward patients. Also, Celestine has seen the importance of physiotherapy with burn patients to prevent contractures. Also, the Cuban pediatrician has seen the importance of it! I think these two things are what I’m most proud of. Celestine learned more than these two things, but if she implements just these two things after I leave, she still is doing more than when I arrived in Kpando.

Ghana has such a need for well-trained medical personnel. Unfortunately, there has been such a brain drain with these professionals. Thus, Ghana becomes reliant on foreign help. Foreigners do not always understand how to set up sustainable programs and so a vicious cycle has started. I really hope I taught Celestine “how to fish” and did not just feed her for a day!

One more real day in Ghana. Bittersweet!

Love, Kari