has been going to Ghana for seven years now to work with the dietitians to prevent and treat malnutrition. But for the first time this summer, she brought a group of five USF graduate students as interns on the journey.
The students traveled to Princess Marie Lois Hospital, the leading malnutrition treatment center in West Africa, to learn alongside Ghanaian dieticians. The students learned about severe malnutrition, how to assess it, and how to treat it. The interns also learned about kwashiorkor, a disease caused by severe protein malnutrition.
鈥淪tudents were able to go into the community and screen children for malnutrition,鈥� Wright said. 鈥淭hey found one that met outpatient criteria and one that actually needed to be admitted to the hospital.鈥�
The USF contingent also spent time at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, a 100-year-old hospital that was the first in Ghana and is still the largest teaching hospital in the country. 鈥淭hey got to go on the burn unit and see how they treat burns,鈥� Wright said. 鈥淭hen, they got to see a patient starting dialysis for the first time.鈥� The dialysis unit at Korle Bu Hospital is the first dialysis center in all of Ghana.
For the interns, their time in Ghana had a huge learning curve. 鈥淎mericans are used to being in hospitals when a patient has a particular disease, there is automatically a formula and resources designed to meet all of their particular nutrient needs there,鈥� Wright said. 鈥淗ere, they have to get very creative with what is available.鈥�
In Ghana, if there are no nutrition supplement products available, local foods are
blended with fish powder to increase protein; the interns learned how to use resources
available to treat malnutrition. During their visit, participants attended a cooking
class on the local cuisine led by the dietitians and experienced a day of cultural
immersion.
Typically, Wright conducts a workshop every year to give back to the communities where
USF interns are learning. 鈥淲e ask a lot of our hosts during the visit,鈥� she said.
鈥淚 feel it鈥檚 important to give back to them for what they give to us.鈥�
