Health, Care & Medicine

Gap Jobs health, care & medicine is available in:
Ghana
Uganda including orphanage work
Kenya
Peru
Tonga

In the western world access to medical care is available to all. However in many of the countries where we operate the standard of medical care is heavily dependent on where you live and how much you can afford to pay. This means that you will be gaining experience in hospitals and clinics with few of the facilities we are used to at home. This also means that you may see examples of medical conditions that you just wouldn’t see in your career in a western hospital.

For example, in some of the hospitals where we work, while accompanying doctors on daily ward rounds it will be common to see patients with advanced sepsis or suffering from tetanus simply because they could not afford to pay for antibiotics or the proper treatment. On the same ward visits you will learn how doctors use intuition when making diagnoses because x-ray and ultra sound are simply not available or are unaffordable. Illnesses and facilities will vary depending on your chosen destination. For example, in Peru the opportunity is available to visit a jungle clinic, where tropical diseases are treated. In Uganda, medics can work with patients suffering from HIV and AIDS.

Your role: Of course the type of experience you gain will depend heavily on your interests and previous clinical experience. Medics with clinical experience may be able to utilize their experience and apply what they’ve learnt to help out over worked doctors, possibly using the experience to brush up on areas they have neglected or struggled with. Local doctors will also be keen to hear about new techniques and advances in medical practice in western medicine.

Those still to gain clinical experience will be doing less hands-on work. The nurse to doctor ratio in our partner hospitals and clinics is much lower than at home, so as well as accompanying doctors on ward rounds and spending time observing in various departments, you may be able to help with the day to day care of patients.

Our medical placements are not just confined to medical students. For those people looking to gain experience in health care, nursing, physiotherapy or another profession allied to medicine, there are opportunities for you to spend time in these areas.

The majority of the Gap Jobs medic placements are in major urban areas where you will spend time in larger regional medical centers. This will help you get a broader range of experiences. However, there will also be opportunities to help out in rural communities on outreach health programmes.

Health and Care projects
From the clinic:

“This week has been an amazing experience for both us medics. The lack of staff resources (leading us having to take part to enormous levels) has made us truly grateful for our working environment in the UK. We have had numerous opportunities this week alone to experience things that we would have to wait years to see in the UK. Perhaps the best was the opportunity to help deliver a child after observing just 3 births. We are enormously grateful to all the doctors and nurses at the Jinja hospital, especially the Sister for all her time and help. They do a truly amazing job. Here’s to another week and another department.”
Hannah Feddo Medic Uganda 2003

Care

When you first arrive at the orphanage you will be greeted by what seems like hundreds of excited little people, grinning from ear to ear, with each one vying for your attention or to hold your hand as you walk around the playground.

But all too often the smiles belie a troubled past. These are the children of parents who have died of aids related illness, or have been abandoned by parents who could no longer afford to support them.

Working in the orphanage is like working in any other school – the main difference being that the children don’t go home at the end of the day. With very young children you may be helping feed, bathe and clothe, providing the care they are desperately missing. With the older children it could be your job to keep them entertained - playing games with them, teaching them your favorite songs or reading them stories. If you are interested in sport, art, music or drama you will be encouraged to start up after school clubs, maybe a football team or drama group.

0845 121 1996
or email:
team@madventurer.com