Morning - Tour of the Adult Emergency and Trauma Center at
Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH)
These services are new emergency care services at (QECH). The interesting observation is that the ER is
used for a lot of primary care services.
Not surprisingly similar to what happens in emergency departments in the
US. Patients who arrive at the center
are triaged in red (seen right away), yellow (seen within 1 hour of arrival)
and green (seen within 4 hours). The
transportation is always an issue, either not having the money for transport or
the vehicles to get to the hospital.
We saw resuscitation rooms, OR theaters, lab, facilities,
and triage rooms – patients of all ages with all levels of medical needs. A major challenge – not enough staff (nurses,
physicians, technicians, etc.) to take care of the many patients that visit the
center on a daily basis.
Afternoon - University of Malawi, College of Medicine
The group visited with the Chair of the pharmacy
department and the Dean of Faculty of the University of Malawi College of
Medicine. The department chair Dr.
Louisa Alfazema is one of the Global health scholars and stayed with me during
her time in San Francisco last November.
In the country of Malawi there are 95 registered pharmacists in the
country! Clearly there are not enough pharmacists
to meet the needs of 15 million people. The pharmacists who do work in country have received
their pharmacy education outside of Malawi.
I had the opportunity to meet with the faculty from the department
of pharmacy.
As with my prior visits with pharmacy faculty, most recently
in Tanzania, they are all quite interested in how we teach our courses in the
US. I am most interested in how they
teach and how it relates to the pharmacy care needs of Malawians.
The program is a fours years and most of the times is spent
in the classroom. The pharmacy practice
and clinical pharmacy courses are taught during the last two years of the
program. The program is fortunate in
that the basic science courses are taught in conjunction with medical
students. The intention and desire is to have the
students do more experiential learning, but the challenge is having prepared
faculty in the school and in the filed to teach the students.
Changes in the curriculum are important and there must be
infrastructure in place to support the curricular changes. A large faculty/preceptor development program
is needed to give faculty the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills and
competencies.
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