18 April 2017: A Blog Post By Becky

Today was our second day at Masindi-Kitara Medical Center. We arrived early to check up on the patients we saw yesterday and to look over the charts of patients who were admitted last night. Sadly when it was time for rounds we learned that Dr. Godson was not able to make it in today. Dr. Godson is an amazing doctor and it is a pleasure working with him. He does everything from general medicine to delivering babies. Yesterday when we finished rounding he just decided he had enough time to do a surgery and invited us to shadow.

When the doctor is away the clinical officers take over patient care. Our malaria discussion last night was very insightful and allowed me to better understand the care involved in treating patients with severe malaria. When gathering a medical history from patients at the clinic, you don’t ask if they’ve ever had malaria, you ask how many times they’ve had malaria.  

A group of eight pharmacists can be overwhelming to patients, so part of the team explored the pharmacy and met with staff this morning. I am extremely proud of the ideas that have come out this group. They are really working to prove clinical pharmacy can be an asset here and trying to create a sustainable program to bring students to in the future. We learned that although many students pass through Masindi-Kitara and make great recommendations, once they leave their suggestions are often forgotten. One great idea I heard today was to keep a folder in the guesthouse at the medical center containing the current projects so the next group can choose to continue the last group’s work.  

After lunch we needed to run some errands, including stops at the africell and airtel shops. Something refreshing about being here is that I am not the only one with phone trouble. I am notorious for being phoneless and out of reach, but here in Uganda I am not alone. Since getting our Ugandan SIM cards we have been struggling to understand the process of airtime and purchasing data. I’m not sure what the fee was for, but when we all received the message about re-registering our numbers, we did what was necessary to do so. As I sit in darkness I am reminded that perspective is everything and can appreciate the things we sometimes take for granted such as having reliable electricity.