Our Nursing Internship in Ghana is ideal for students looking for work experience before or during university.
This
is a great accompaniment to your studies and will give you a clearer
idea of the work you do on a daily basis. If your goal is a career in
nursing, the skills you learn during your internship will be a valuable
addition to your CV.
No problem, if you have no experience! The goal of this
internship is for you to learn, and you’ll gain a lot from shadowing
local nurses and doctors. We recommend taking advantage of any
opportunity to ask questions and take notes.
Your medical
coordinator will teach you what you need to know before you work at any
outreaches, and will be there to supervise you throughout.
Our Nursing Internship in Ghana runs throughout the year, and you can join at any time.
You'll work at a hospital, where you'll shadow and learn from nurses
and other medical staff. During your internship, you will:
Your work will focus on the following areas:
- Shadow nurses as they work with patients in the hospital
A
big part of your placement will see you observing and following nurses
as they do their rounds. This will give you an idea of what nurses do
on a daily basis. At your nursing placement in Ghana, you will see for
yourself how important nurses are in the smooth functioning of a
hospital. They care for patients, monitor them, and administer
medication.
- Experience work in different hospital departments
Hospitals
in Ghana have different departments to meet the needs of the growing
population. We recommend using this opportunity to intern several,
spending at least a week in which one. You'll see different illnesses
and injuries across different departments. This will also give you a
better idea on which departments you wish to work in in the future.
- Provide free health checks and run educational campaigns at medical outreaches
You’ll
take part in medical outreach work once or twice a week. Here, you’ll
assist the nurses with basic healthcare checks... Here are a few of the tasks you'll do:
- Clean wounds
- Treat ringworm
- Check blood sugar levels
- Check blood pressure levels
- Conduct malaria and Hepetitis B tests
- Help nurses refer patients with positive test results
- Help distribute medication
Another
part of our outreach work is focused on education. Education is a huge
part of empowering local communities and an important prevention method.
Our goal is to improve standards of health in the community. We do this
by creating awareness around various diseases and share knowledge about
prevention and treatment. You will help with setting up and running
these campaigns. These activities will give you invaluable nursing work
experience in Ghana.
There are many different departments available including:
- General medicine
- General surgery
- Paediatrics
- Accident and emergency
- Gynaecology/Obstetics
- Labs
- Opthamology
- Dentistry
- Physiotherapy and more
When you first arrive at the hospital you will discuss your work schedule with the OGVO coordinator and the placement supervisor who will be a member of the hospital staff. If you are specializing in a specific area of nursing, you will discuss this with us and we will ensure that you are able to develop a program of study to support this. Many students choose to spend time in a variety of different departments within the hospital, including accident and emergency, pediatrics, maternity, pharmacy, physical therapy, and surgery.
Students on Nursing Internship are also encouraged to take part in regular medical outreach work, which involves treating children with minor wounds or illnesses from small villages or paying a visit to an orphanage. Those on a Nursing Internship wanting to specialize in the outreach work can join a full time Public Health.
Nursing Student Internship in Ghana are available for shorter periods than 4 weeks. While you will be able to gain valuable medical experience on a short-term trip, we recommend staying for a longer period to allow yourself more time to get to know the local medical system, see more of a variety of conditions and procedures, and develop stronger relationships with local medical staff.
Can I use this program as part of a college or university placement?
It is certainly possible to use one of OGVO’s programs as part of your university or college placement. Project staff can sign off any paperwork required by your course tutors. OGVO regularly receives medical, childcare, psychology and nursing placement students at our projects across Ghana and we have ties with some of the leading universities.
If you’re a course tutor and would like further information about how one of OGVO’s programs could meet the placement requirements for your degree course then please contact us directly.
Location
Ghana is a peaceful and welcoming country; Ghana satisfies one's appetite for both modern and traditional life. Its wide valleys, low-lying coastal plains, and thick rainforests resound with the beat of traditional rituals, while her cities glow and vibrate with all the bustle of the modern world. The Ghanaians are the friendliest people in West Africa: warm, proud yet humble with a contagious and calming sense of funniness.
Ghana is hot. It is always hot. What’s more, it's always humid. Humidity usually lingers between 95 and 100 percent. The rainy season lasts from mid-June to mid-November - sometimes. The rain provides a little respite from the intense heat, but temperatures will still be in the mid-80s Fahrenheit. The south of the country experiences the heaviest rainfall during September.
