Friends of Kiwoko Hospital

 

 

Medical and other student Electives

Write about your experiences: was it worthwhile? what did you learn? would you recommend others to go - send your story to feedback@fokh.org.uk.

1. from Andrew click here to download
2. from John H. To download it click here.
3. Medical student elecive report

Kiwoko Hospital welcomes medical, physio, OT, nursing and other students, with suitable interests, coming on elective. There is purpose built accommodation. Only a fixed number of students can be accommodated at any one time. Application should usually be made directly to Judith Finch at Kiwoko Hospital.* There is a charge of apprx. £10-15 per day to cover cost of accommodation, meals etc. Students get a lot of hands on experience in the hospital. While the ethos of the Hospital is Christian, students can be of any faith or none. All who have been through have found it a very worthwhile experience.

You should NOT contact Friends of Kiwoko Hopsital as student electives are all organised by the hospital. You should arrange to pay the hospital directly.

* Judith Finch
Kiwoko Hospital
PO Box 149
Luwero
Uganda E mail: visitors@kiwokohospital.org I haven't attached a link to this to try and avoid spam being sent to Kiwoko.

What it is like to be a medical student at Kiwoko?

Here is one medical student's report:

The medical elective at Kiwoko was an amazing experience providing challenges and encouragements academically, personally and spiritually. Initially I had a different elective planned, but due to unavoidable circumstances my plans changed and Kiwoko was my new destination and how glad I am for this! The range of clinical opportunities available was incredibly diverse with an entirely different spectrum of disease from what is seen in the U.K. There was always more to learn and always people keen to teach. There were four wards we rotated round – paediatrics, female, male and maternity, as well as there being Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, surgery, outpatients department and work with the community team. The medical team was sensitive to each individual’s levels of confidence and competence and accommodated for these in what we were encouraged to do.

Uganda is a wonderful country with the most hospitable people who are warm and friendly. Life is also very hard for the majority of local people and each day we were faced with the injustices of this world and the challenge of medicine in such difficult circumstances (though Kiwoko is more equipped than most hospitals!). As I am keen to work in Africa in the future, the placement provided time to gain insight into medicine in this context. At times it was emotionally extremely difficult and at these times we were well supported. Death is an occasional event in clinical placements at home and nearly unheard of in paediatrics. Unfortunately the reverse is often the reality of life in Africa and the first child I worked with who died was a very traumatic experience for me, but a part of life common here.

We found that our time in Kiwoko was much more than a clinical placement and during our time we were made to feel that it was very much our home too. The facilities were fantastic and we were delighted to find running water, electricity and even flush toilets and an oven which got used (some will argue) probably a little too much! From the moment we arrived we were included into everything and always felt a valued member of the clinical team and of the wider mission team too.

Outside of the working hours, there was rarely a dull moment. Morning runs established by Niall at 6:30 am (!) kept us busy at the start of the day and in the evening there was countless books to be read, table tennis to play, a walk around the block, people to visit, dancing, drumming and Luganda language lessons to have and DVD’s to watch (and for us the World Cup to see too). And at weekends there was Uganda to explore, unless you were lazy, like me, and so a chance to relax and do virtually nothing!

As I hope you can tell, it was a wonderful experience and I highly recommend venturing to Uganda and onto Kiwoko for your elective.