My return to the UK

I have spent four of the eight weeks of our Student-Selected Component research period collecting data from a large regional hospital in the Gambia, and I returned to the UK just over a week ago. It’s been a tough transition. The Gambia was a wonderful place, full of extremely pleasant people and experiences., most importantly, it was warm and pleasant weather. But there were lots of things I missed about England whilst abroad. Getting fresh vegetables in West Africa was really difficult – it usually involved a 20-minute walk one-way under the baking sun (I stupidly forgot my sunglasses, because I never use them at home! At least I remembered suncream). And most food products were imported and thus twice as expensive as UK shelves.

Yet there are, of course, many things that the Gambia lacks but that we enjoy in this country. For instance, on one of the weekend afternoons towards the end of my stay, we were at the beach and there was a scare that someone had been swept too far out to sea (it turned out to be a false alarm; it was a buoy that looked like a head bobbing above the waves). But it took over an hour for anyone to muster a boat and mount a rescue mission. In the UK, there is no doubt in my mind that the RNLI would be out as soon as possible, rain or shine, and would be hauling any victims on board without delay. Such an infrastructure simply doesn’t exist in the Gambia (or most of the world, for that matter). Once again, we are very lucky people and mustn’t forget it.

The data-collection portion of my research project was fruitful and extremely beneficial. I was able to collect a lot of information about requests for tuberculosis investigations and how different patients were handled clinically – both before and after admissions to the wards. Now that I have all of these data, I am going to spend the next couple of weeks writing up my findings, and hopefully turning it in at the beginning of December. The purpose of my project was to conduct an audit – this involves measuring current practice against a recognised standard and making recommendations for improvement. But even though my current work just involves clinical investigations, I collected a great deal of information about treatment and clinical outcomes as well. The local staff and I are hoping to get a lot more information out of this work and perhaps even a publication or two.

Now that I’m back in the UK, I need to improve my work-life balance once again – no more weekend afternoons at the beach! I’ve become reacquainted with the jumpers at the back of my wardrobe. I’ve got used to driving in the dark again. It’s not necessary to sit next to the AC for two hours to cool down after walking back from the main campus. But I can go to my choice of supermarket and get any fresh vegetable I want! And I can visit my GP if I’m worried about my health. Probably the main, and most important, lesson that I’ve learned from this experience is that we are extremely lucky in the UK to have such an advanced and developed society and one that looks after all those within it. Long may it continue.

John

Luke Pemberton : 09 Nov 2016 16:27 |  Tags: John Mbchb Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem