Saint Francis hospital, Katete, Zambia

Elective student

Zambia

I worked on the male medical ward at St Francis hospital, Katete, Zambia for 8 weeks in April/May 2005. Most of this time I was running the ward, sometimes with help from a registrar from Oxford, who covered the medical clinics and the wards.

Medical student. Due to start as a PRHO in August 2005.

BMedSci, BMBS

By e-mail. I did a gap year in Zambia in 2000 and decided to go back to the same region.

Cultural awareness (essential), a basic knowledge of Chinyanja (useful, but by no means essential), an ability to work independently with much less supervision than in the UK.

The challenges were two-fold; working as a 'doctor' for the first time, and managing conditions I had only ever heard of before!

Take the Oxford handbook of tropical medicine! Some cultural awareness is really useful, in terms of dealing with people professionally and socially and coping with living in an unfamiliar country. I was glad I went back to the same region I had been in before, so 'culture shock' was not that great.

The hospital is well set up for overseas health professionals, with accommodation and food provided (at a small cost).

I would like to return to St Francis at some point after further training, maybe to do some research.

A patient on the ward was under police custody, handcuffed to the bed and unconscious. The relative of another patient remarked: "that's good, because when he wakes up and runs away with the bed, you can sue the police!".

Yes, tim.rittman@mac.com