DAY 3 JUNE 19, 2012

This morning was a tour of Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.  This is one of the central hospitals in Malawi.  It is a teaching hospital for medicine, nursing, and pharmacy students.  We saw an array of patients, both adult and children.  The conditions seen which require hospitalization include malaria, fractures, respiratory diseases, and hernia repairs to name a few.   I also visited the pediatric oncology ward.   The care provided to the patients is wonderful – the nurses and the doctors are very compassionate and do all they can to help the patients.  Follow-up with patients is difficult because of lack of money or vehicles to transport patients from the village to the hospitals or health centers.   Family members or guardians as they are referred to, provide a lot of the care, even at the hospital.  You see them camped outside doing laundry and preparing meals. 

With sickness often comes death in Malawi.   Next to the pharmacy is the mortuary.  Daily you see family members and friends gathering to pay their last respects.  One can hear a mixture of crying and singing during what I call the “going home” service.   Family and friends are left hurting and grieving, but the loved one who has crossed over, is no longer suffering…  

Next to the hospital is the School of Nursing where we meet with our Malawian colleagues to discuss their scholar projects and our case study during the afternoon hours.  The cultural and educational exchange is so very rich as I discover the tee are indeed more similar the new are different.  The same issues that we struggle with in the US are struggles 
experienced in Malawi.  We are at a point now where we can help each other and learn form one another's experiences.  The topic of our group case study is the procurement of medications in Malawi to treat malaria.  The World Health Organization compiles lists of essential medications for resource limited countries.  A major problem experienced by the health community in Malawi is having a reliable source of medications to treat various diseases, including HIV/AIDS.  The purpose of the case study is to provide a mechanism for others to learn about the processes involved in procuring medications, specifically in Malawi, and to determine what interventions are needed to help improve the current processes in place with the government, the central hospitals, district clinics, and local heath centers and perhaps recommend new strategies.