Our second week in Ghana allowed us to learn a lot more about their healthcare system and what it was like to be a nurse in a developing nation. We had a long talk with a nurse in the OR and he really enlightened us! In Ghana in the OR all of the anesthesiologists are basically nurses with additional training. There are also doctor-aneathesiologiats but there are only 50 of them across Ghana and 1 of them at Effia Nkwanta. The reason the majority are nurses is because it allows them to maximize the staff to their full potential on the job. While an anesthesiologist at home will have only one job these staff have the responsibility of sedating and monitoring patients for surgery as well as participate in their care. A professional with this much responsibility and extra training in Ghana will make around $1500 cedis a month, a salary which is equivalent to $500 a month or $6300 Canadian dollars a YEAR.
Another thing that was very interesting to hear from a nursing perspective was the transition that Ghana is making into community health. Because the infant mortality rate was so high the healthcare system is trying to educate older women in communities with lots of experience with birth and teaching them sterile technique. A room or building with an educated 'midwife' must be dedicated to mothers who are in labour in every community or town. The newest statistics are showing that this shift to community nursing is decreasing the number of deaths they are seeing in infants and mothers.
-K