These past few months, I have been anticipating the opportunity to go to Ilula with great excitement. When I first applied to this pharmacy rotation, I thought about how my experiences in Tanzania would help shape my future career as a pharmacist. One of my long-term goals has always been to serve for an organization such as Doctors Without Borders.
Over the past few years, I've sought opportunities that would allow me to volunteer my time and skills to the betterment of medically under-served populations. I have often pondered, however, how volunteering my time to such cause would impact the people I am trying to help. There are many ethical dilemmas, which I will not cover today but should be something to think about.
I have been asked about the type of work I will be doing in Tanzania. Often, I sense that there is an expectation for me to answer something along the lines of helping people or somehow helping fix problems that are often reported in the media. Problems that of course have merit but are often viewed as technical and not adaptive problems. Money and volunteering my time often cannot fix problems abroad or locally.
The work that we will be doing in Ilula is fantastic. Learning about the work that has occurred over the last decade at this hospital is inspiring. I will be going there to learn. I am not there to fix anything necessarily. Rather, I will be there with colleagues to learn and to offer our thoughts and support to help others learn and grow. The following will make my comment make sense.
A couple of years ago, I came across this short documentary. Please click here to view (http://vimeo.com/6200458).
Over the past few years, I've sought opportunities that would allow me to volunteer my time and skills to the betterment of medically under-served populations. I have often pondered, however, how volunteering my time to such cause would impact the people I am trying to help. There are many ethical dilemmas, which I will not cover today but should be something to think about.
I have been asked about the type of work I will be doing in Tanzania. Often, I sense that there is an expectation for me to answer something along the lines of helping people or somehow helping fix problems that are often reported in the media. Problems that of course have merit but are often viewed as technical and not adaptive problems. Money and volunteering my time often cannot fix problems abroad or locally.
The work that we will be doing in Ilula is fantastic. Learning about the work that has occurred over the last decade at this hospital is inspiring. I will be going there to learn. I am not there to fix anything necessarily. Rather, I will be there with colleagues to learn and to offer our thoughts and support to help others learn and grow. The following will make my comment make sense.
A couple of years ago, I came across this short documentary. Please click here to view (http://vimeo.com/6200458).
I am posting this as a "comment" in place of a regular post because of technical difficulties.
ReplyDeleteWe are now a week into our trip and have settled into Ilula. Despite Tanzania being insanely gorgeous, the people here have been extremely welcoming and kind. I thought as an initial post that I would quickly introduce the members of our group ....
Sandy Lee - 3rd year medical student at University of Minnesota
Laura Hanson - 4th year medical student at University of Minnesota
Cole Pueringer - 3rd year medical student at University of Minnesota
Chandra Cherukuri - Family Medicine Resident
Deepthi Malepati - Internal Medicine Resident
Jill Strykowski - Pharmacy administrator and frequent Ilula volunteer (and Julie's sister)
Julie Hause - Physical Therapist (and Jill's sister)
Erin Morris - Pastor looking to make ties with local Ilula churches and a US church back home
Treya Connell - University of Iowa student (and Lanette's grandaughter)
Lynette Franklin - Nurse with experience in many fields (Treya's grandmother)
Kristi Hembre - Physician Assistant
Shana Steinbeck - Pharmacy student at the University of Minnesota
Kelsey Bartz - Pharmacy student at the University of Minnesota
Astrid Steffen - Pharmacy student at the University of Minnesota, originally from Guatemala
and of course...
Randy Hurley - Oncologist, Leader of our group
Gary Moody - Family Physician, Leader of our group
Kari Hurley - Nurse, Leader of our group
We have such a great group and have been enjoying a few days of heavy rains lately amidst a recently broken well system at Ilula. We have been introduced to the outpatient and inpatient medical wards/clinics, HIV/AIDS clinic, Maternal and child health clinic, taken a few road trips to local villages and dispesaries, seen several babies be born, c-sections be performed....no shortage of learning and interesting cases to discuss. I look forward to posting more in the future!