Students praised following Ghana hospital knowledge exchange visit

Six advanced practice apprenticeship students from the University of Huddersfield have been praised for being incredible ambassadors for the university following a knowledge exchange visit to Ghana.

Jennifer McVay, Laura Shepherd, Lyndsey Hinde, Chloe Gough, Rosemary Uchechukwu and Sally Stables, are all studying on the Advanced Practice (Apprenticeship) MSc.

The students were accompanied on their visit to the teaching hospital at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) by three of their lecturers, Professor Melanie Rogers, Charlotte Barker and Angela Windle plus an affiliate lecturer, Dr Deb Gray, from Old Dominion University, West Virginia.

They were also joined by Dr Dartel Norman, a Consultant Geriatrician at Harrogate and District Foundation Trust, who played a key role in facilitating the visit.

The five days at KNUST University Health Services (UHS) in the city of Kumasi saw the Huddersfield students work alongside Ghanaian colleagues across a variety of areas of the hospital, including emergency and maternity.

The students and lecturers also took part in health clinics at rural health centres and a local orphanage during their 10-day visit to Ghana, with the lecturers also delivering presentations on compassionate care and the importance of good communication as well as meeting with faculty staff at the KNUST University to develop collaborations.

Students 'out of their comfort zone'

“The students were asked to support a health clinic for children and staff at an orphanage on the day we arrived in Kumasi, followed by five days at KNUST," Charlotte Barker explains.

"They were out of their comfort zone, but they acquitted themselves incredibly well and were an absolute credit to our university.”

“I have been hugely inspired by when mentored by doctors from overseas, and while working at Harrogate Hospital I learned a great deal from Dr Norman. We often discussed healthcare in Ghana, and I had wanted to go for a long time so after joining the university I discovered that Melanie and Angela had facilitated some overseas experience for advance practice students.

“Dartel put us in touch with people he knew in Ghana, and with a Memorandum of Understanding that we now have with KNUST we were able to arrange this recent visit to Accra and Kumasi.

“It was more than a clinical placement for students, we also met with the Ministry of Health, the Nursing and Midwifery Council. the College of Nurses and other stakeholders as there was a keen interest in developing Ghana’s nursing workforce specifically around advanced practice.

'An honour to represent the university'

Chloe Gough, one of the students who visited Ghana, reflected on the trip saying,  “It reinforced a fundamental truth within clinical practice: a thorough history and active listening often lead you to the diagnosis long before any investigation is ordered. 

“I felt deep admiration for the clinicians who deliver exceptional care with minimal resources, relying on skill, intuition and education to guide their decisions.

“Ghana reminded me that the diagnostic tests we rely on at home are a privilege, tools designed to support and confirm our clinical judgement, not replace it.

“It was an honour to represent the University of Huddersfield, and to travel to Ghana with such wonderful colleagues. I am even more grateful to the people we met along the way who welcomed us into their homes and workplaces.”

A true knowledge exchange

Both organisations were keen that each institution’s students and staff would learn from each other over the course of the visit from Huddersfield.

Angela Windle adds, “We wanted our students to learn from their experience, and KNUST UHS were really keen that it was a knowledge exchange between the two of us. Our students joined teaching ward rounds, and they attended lectures on public health issues like Mpox and sickle cell disease. They were really useful, as these are not areas our students would have anywhere near as much knowledge on as our colleagues from KNUST.

“We were asked us to help promote compassionate care and patient-centred communication by leading discussions on them, as this is an area they admitted that they struggle with, so we were delighted to share what we know on these vital subjects.

“Seeing health care delivered in that setting is very different, and we were very mindful not to just tell people ‘the UK way’ of doing things. We all built some great relationships in Ghana, and our students did us proud. They were amazing, incredibly professional, and always very respectful of the people they met in Ghana.”

Huddersfield’s Advanced Practice apprenticeship students are experienced clinicians from across primary and secondary care settings, and the findings from surveys carried out with them before and after their visit to Ghana will help with further research related to their course.