Clinical Placements in Ghana

On a medical elective in Ghana, you could see cases of conditions like diabetic gangrene (and resulting amputations), typhoid psychosis, and acute malaria. You can gain experience in areas like the ED, general medicine, orthopaedics and surgery. However, the way local staff practice, differs enormously from what you’re used to. Around 300 patients per week attend the hospital’s HIV clinic, and here you have plenty of opportunity to get heavily involved if interested. You can also get experience in the clinical laboratory that offer diagnoses and provides screened blood, and safe blood products.

If you’re a midwifery student, clinical experience in Ghana is second to none. We work with a government hospital and three smaller private clinics where you will get experience with live births and prenatal and postnatal care. You’ll see caesarean sections and breech births more commonly than you do at home. This is often the result of a distinct lack of prenatal care. Midwifery in Africa can be very different to what you're used to back home, an example being; women are expected to give birth in silence in Ghana, which is a cultural norm. This, and much more, will be eye opening. 

The regional hospital we’re partnered with in Ghana has a busy physiotherapy department. The department, which functions primarily as an outpatient unit, is professionally staffed and well equipped by west african standards. The unit handles an average of 20 cases per day, the majority of which are regular patients who attend a few times each week. You’ll encounter cases of stroke, post-operative rehabilitation, Bell’s palsy, and Erb's palsy among others. You’ll see that treatment here is focused around helping patients using gym equipment. You can also help create plans for patients so they can continue exercises at home.

During your biomedical science placement in Ghana, you can garner experience in the clinical laboratory, learning the local approach to diagnoses, screening blood, and ensuring the production of safe blood products. In terms of cases, you could encounter conditions like diabetic gangrene (often leading to amputations), acute malaria, and even typhoid psychosis. More broadly, you can spend time in departments like A&E, general medicine, orthopaedics, and surgery. Regardless of where you choose to spend time, you’ll see that practises in Takoradi diverge significantly from what you’re used to seeing. The hospital's HIV clinic, attended by approximately 300 patients each week, offers you the chance to gain substantial insight if you opt for it.

On a paramedic science placement, you can get experience in the largest and best-equipped hospital in Takoradi. In this case, ‘best-equipped’ doesn’t mean well equipped, especially when compared to what you’re used to in Australia. The ED here is open plan, but has separate areas for paediatrics and minor surgeries. When the department gets busy, it’s often difficult to tell where one area ends and the other begins. You’ll have the chance to exchange knowledge and skills with local Ghanaian students, which you’ll find enormously insightful. You’ll also see how local culture impacts how local professionals deliver care.

Thanks to our well-established hospital partnerships in Ghana, a nursing placement here will give you the choice of rotating through a range of departments. Areas like female and male surgical are popular, but there's also opportunity to do some community outreach depending on your field of interest. NICU is an exciting department, as is emergency where there are regularly cases of major trauma. There is also an HIV clinic in which you can come to understand the difficulties faced by local professionals and the communities in which they work.

Radiography departments in Ghana are rarely, if ever, as well equipped as equivalent departments at home. As such, you can get experience with much older X-ray machines (including developing scans on film in a darkroom), ultrasound machines and MRI machines. A broad range of cases are referred to our partner hospitals from smaller clinics in the surrounding communities. This means you’ll observe and analyse a range of conditions. You can expect to observe and help conduct procedures including hysterosalpingograms, barium meals, ureothograms. fistulagrams, IVU, fractures, and tuberculosis.

Pharmacy placements in Ghana will live up to, if not surpass your expectations. You will experience a clinically focused placement alongside department staff including supervisors. You’ll also undertake ward rounds and require a number of new skills along the way. What’s more, you can observe the inner workings of a lab where medicines like unbranded aspirin are made.

Clinical experience for dentistry student in Ghana is an entirely unique experience. With a good number of patients coming through the door, spending time in the departments in our partner hospitals and clinics is anything but dull. As part of your dentistry placement in Ghana, you can get experience with more familiar practices like preventive health checks, or even undertake an observational placement in the ENT department. It may also be possible for you to head out into the community to conduct outreach clinics, depending on when you arrive.