2011 Mission to Ghana
from Mollie Carver
Today was our second full work day with Standing With Hope. We were very busy today with different things. We worked with patients teaching them to have a better walk. We trained the guys in the shop on various exercises they can do with patients, and we drew out exercises to leave with the guys. The first patient we treated was an above knee amputation on one side and a below knee amputation on the other leg. We helped him learn how to shift his weight appropriately and taught him proper foot placement. Hannah became the resident prosthetist by helping Moses, Adofos, and Joseph (three guys who work in the shop) by sanding and sawing various sockets. All in all it was the busiest morning we have had while staying in Ghana.
Maggie and Kathy also had a busy day while at Standing With Hope. Maggie was able to assist Kathy with drawing pictures of spinal braces for the orthotics department. Maggie also fixed a patient’s wheelchair lock when no one else was able to! Good thing we had an English professor to fix it for us!
Renee taught Esther, a child who is waiting to be adopted by an American prosthetist that works with Standing with Hope, multiplication tables. Likewise, Esther was able to teach us some of the local games.
Peter set up a meeting for us with two of the people who work under the General Contractor of Ghana Health Services (“the big wigs”). At the meeting we discussed possibilities of how members of Belmont’s College of Health Sciences could partner with Ghana Health Services and the University of Ghana in order to teach and work with local clinicians.
Tonight, we plan to meet Anna for supper at a local restaurant that is owned by former volunteers of Operations Crossroads Africa, the same organization that Sarahann worked with. Anna is the Physical Therapist that owns a clinic in Accra and is the Interim Coordinator of the Physiotherpaist program at the University of Ghana.
Tomorrow we have a fun filled day with a trip to Cape Coast to tour a wildlife reserve and two former slave castles.
It will be an early morning and a long day!
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Thursday in Ghana
2011 Mission to Ghana
from Sarahann Callaway
We spent the day working at Ghana Health Services helping Standing With Hope. There were six patients that came in and out throughout the day.
Standing With Hope’s goal is for the men that work in the shop to make 75 new artificial limbs a year and maintain their current patient load. After helping with the first two patients’ prosthetics we decided to create a short exercise program (see picture at right) because there is no physical therapist that helps train these patients how to walk with their new limbs.
After lunch, there was a bit of a stand still because there is a box of supplies in a nearby town that will arrive “tomorrow” (aka not today). It’s been tomorrow the past three days.
We decided to teach two of the patients waiting for their new legs how to play Uno. They caught on quickly and beat us the second game.
Later on in the afternoon, Hannah helped one the Ghanian prothetists with making a new leg and Mollie and I helped another patient improve his walking. (see the pictures below)
Overall it was a very good day at Standing With Hope and we are looking forward to another day of work tomorrow!
Tuesday & Wednesday in Ghana
2011 Mission to Ghana
from Hannah Peck
It’s been two days sense we’ve blogged because we have been traveling half way across the country to Kpando. We woke up early Tuesday morning for the exciting Tro-tro ride. We arrived in Kpando in the early afternoon to an extremely welcoming, Emmanuel, who gave us a tour and introduced us to all the departments of Margaret Marquart Catholic Hospital. He introduced us to a few of his patients and sat in on Emmanuel’s treatment session of a stroke patient. After the session, Emmanuel discussed with us the increase in stroke prevalence in Ghana, due to high blood pressure and poor diet. After the day at the hospital, Sarahann introduced us to some of her friends she met on her last visit to Ghana, who invited us over for dinner. We enjoyed a relaxing evening outside in the “cool” Ghana air, with 30 neighborhood children who were very excited to see some “yevos” (white people). We just happened to meet a fellow Tennessean who will also be joining us on our flight home on Sunday. What a small world!
The next morning we awoke early because it was market day in Kpando. After telling all of our new and old friends goodbye, we got back onto the Tro-tro for the long, fast, bumpy drive back to Accra. Upon arrival in Accra, we met up with Peter, the co-founder of Standing with Hope, at Ghana Health Services for a tour of the prosthetics and orthotics clinic (picture below). We met a patient that was extremely excited to see 5 young ladies who will be working with him tomorrow. On the walk home from Ghana Health services, we passed through the “bus stop”/market to find some delectable “Obama” (and family) cookies. After a long day of traveling, we had dinner at the hotel and decided to practice taping ankles for our upcoming 1st Responder course. As you can tell we are having a super exciting evening.
Monday in Ghana
2011 Mission to Ghana
from Sarahann Callaway
Today was a great day for building relationships here in Ghana. We spent the day with Anna Hughton (pictured here with professors Brown and Gallaway). Anna is a Ghanian physiotherapist. She owns her own private practice and is the coordinator for the physiotherapy school in Ghana. In the morning we met with her at her private clinic had a tour and discussed physiotherapy in Ghana and the potential for collaboration with Belmont. We learned that Ghana has had a physiotherapy program for 10 years. It is a five year program (four years of university and one year of internship). The program consists of all lecture with few labs. After our morning discussion we went to tour the teaching hospital, Kor-le-bu. We met the other physio teachers and toured the physiotherapy building. We had the opportunity to see the pediatrics clinic as well (see picture below). Anna asked us to dinner, which I was very excited about because we went to a restaurant/ bakery that I had visited on my last visit to Ghana. After dinner, we had to stop in the bakery to pick up a pastry for breakfast in the morning. We leave bright and early for Kpando!!!
Sunday in Ghana
2011 Mission to Ghana
from Sarahann Callaway, Mollie Carver and Hannah Peck, 3rd year PT students
Today was a very educational day in Ghana. We began with cultural training with Albie and Rose discussing the economy of Ghana, its history, the health care system, neo-colonialism, education, and current problems that the Ghanians are facing. Next we are able to visit the tomb of the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, where we toured the museum and its grounds and learned about Ghana’s efforts to unite all African nations and met the possible next president “Yo.” Nkrumah’s tomb is a popular destination for weddings and wedding photography sessions. We were even asked to take pictures with one of the brides getting married today.
We then proceeded to have a bus tour of Accra and then ate at the Country Kitchen for lunch/dinner. Don’t be fooled by the name; we had authentic Ghanian food. Next we drove to the University of Ghana and were able to stop at the highest point of Accra where we could overlook the city. Rose and Albie then took us to a dance class with a group of students from Cal State University where we learned to dance, sing, and play the flute. And lastly, we took our first taxi ride from the University back to the hotel.
Arrived in Ghana
2011 Mission to Ghana
From Renee Brown & Kathy Galloway, Faculty Sponsors
Our team of 6 departed Nashville on Friday July 23 for an African adventure (above)! Kathy Galloway (PT, DSc, ECS), Renee Brown ( PT , PhD), Sarahann Callaway, Hannah Peck, Mollie Carver (all 3rd year PT students) and Maggie Monteverde, Director of Study Abroad arrived in Accra, Ghana after a long crowded and delayed flight. We were met by our in-country guide, Albie, and checked into our hotel. We had a walking tour of part of the city, including an arts bazaar where drums were being made. We walked through the market streets (watch out for the gutters! Your car exhaust checks are worth the $10!) and enjoyed a cold refreshing one at a café (below). We returned to the hotel and had a quick walk on the beach before dinner. We enjoyed our first Ghanaian meal of Red Red, Tribal rice, tilapia, ground nut soup, and okra stew. We turned in as it had been a long 2 days!
PT faculty and students take mission to Ghana
2011 Mission to Ghana
from Belmont News
A group of Belmont faculty, students and alumni from the College of Health Sciences & Nursing are in Ghana this summer for a pilot medical service trip they hope will blossom into an annual mission for the University.
“This is really more of a relationship-building and fact-finding trip,” said Physical Therapy Professor Renee Brown. “Our goal is for it to become an interdisciplinary and an annual trip.”
Physical Therapy Associate Professor Kathy Galloway, Assistant Provost for International Education and Study Away Maggie Monteverde and third-year physical therapy students Sarahann Callaway, Mollie Carver and Hannah Peck also are on the 10-day trip.
Callaway visited Kpando, Ghana two years ago to carry out health initiatives, host community talks on malnutrition and diseases and work in a pharmacy.
“Even with the stress of PT school… the memories of Ghana still dance across my mind. I must admit sometimes during a lecture or two I have been known to daydream about my return,” Callaway said. She approached Brown about creating a Belmont University mission trip to the developing country, and she immediately approved. “To make a long story short, over the past year and half Dr. Brown and many other people have been working very hard to make this trip possible.”
The group plans to visit the country’s capital Accra, Kpando and Cape Coast. There they will work with the physiotherapy department in a Kpando hospital as well as tour clinics and physical therapy academic programs at local universities. They also will work with Standing with Hope (http://standingwithhope.com), a nonprofit organization founded by Belmont University alumni Gracie and Peter Rosenberger that provides custom-made prostheses to amputees and teaches them how to use their new limbs.
School of Physical Therapy recognized by APTA
Belmont University School of Physical Therapy was one of nine companies and organizations recognized recently at the annual conference of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) for achieving 100% membership in the Tennessee Physical Therapy Association (TPTA).
Also recognized were Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute in Nashville, Pulaski Physical Therapy in Pulaski, Daymar Institute in Clarksville, McMinnville Physical Therapy in McMinnville, Benchmark Physical Therapy in Spring City, Church Health Center and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and Life Care Center of Bruceton in Hollow Rock, Bruceton.
The mission of the Tennessee Physical Therapy Association, a member driven organization, is to represent and advocate for the profession of physical therapy and promote excellent, ethical, and autonomous practice, which serves the culturally diverse population of Tennessee. The 1700 members of TPTA are also members of the American Physical Therapy Association.
Pharmacy Student Begins Community Walking Club
from Juanita Cousins
Belmont University
Since beginning her morning walking routine, Edgehill Apartments resident Sandra Chandler has felt less arthritis aches in her knees.
Thanks to a Belmont University pharmacy student’s mission project, she also has learned to drink a gallon of water daily, eat six small meals a day, cook with whole wheat flour and fill half of her plate with fruits and vegetables.
Fourth-year pharmacy student Adam Culbertson laid the trail for the Edgehill Rose Park Walking Club, a group of neighbors, civic leaders and Belmont University athletes who walk from 7 to 9 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He began the walking club in July to fulfill the mission portion of required rotations for Belmont pharmacy students and is relying on University athletes and civic leaders to continue the program.
“My goal was to go into an underserved community and give them something that they could do themselves and is sustainable,” he said. “I talked with community leaders about their wants and needs, and (Family Resource Center Director) Brenda Morrow said, ‘Why not get them outside and create goals for the adults and get sports players from the school to teach kids basic skills?’”
Belmont OTD alum aids soldiers with PTSD
Dr. Jenny Owens, a graduate of Belmont’s occupational therapy doctoral program, and her husband, Evan, were featured this week in a Tennessean newspaper story regarding their work with Reboot Recovery, a Christian ministry to veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Jenny has been involved with treating returning soldiers and veterans in the Clarksville/Fort Campbell area since she graduated from Belmont. Scott McPhee, Associate Dean and faculty member in the School of Occupational Therapy said: “I am not surprised by her outreach to her client population. She is a special person. We are proud of her and happy that she continues her relationship with Belmont as a member of our OT Advisor Board.”
The Tennessean article is linked here.
Pharmacy Faculty, Student Participate in AACP Annual Meeting
Eight of the Belmont University School of Pharmacy faculty and one student pharmacist recently traveled to San Antonio to participate in the 2011 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Annual Meeting, themed Bridges to Our Bright Future. At the event Shanna N. Harris was recognized as a Walmart pharmacy scholar, sponsored by Dr. Marilyn E. Thompson Odom. Belmont presented four posters, titled “Meeting Market Needs: Curricular Concentration Requirement to Broaden Student Career Prospects,” “Support Groups and Identity: Influence on Setting and Achieving Goals in Persons with Type 2 Diabetes,” “An On-Campus Community Pharmacy to Support Medication Safety Skills: Use of a Unique Educational Resource” and “Development and Implementation of a Collaborative Interprofessional Learning Program.” In addition, three Belmont faculty served as delegates, or alternate delegate, in the AACP House of Delegates, and Dr. Andrew Webster, chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Belmont, served as academic section officer and chair-elect of the section on chemistry. Faculty who were meeting participants, presenters, delegates, or alternate delegate included Drs. Cathy Ficzere, Angela Hagan, Condit Steil, Hope Campbell, Ken Reed and Phil Johnston.
Belmont Social Work student elected as NASW representative
Congratulations to Kelsey Lalman for being elected to serve one year as the BSW Student Representative on the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Tennessee Chapter Board of Directors. This position was elected by the membership of NASW and is a great honor. Kelsey is a senior social work major and is also currently the President of the Social Work Club.
Belmont Nursing Students Excel in Summer Program at Vanderbilt Medical Center
For the past five weeks 22 Belmont nursing students participated in a summer internship program called Vanderbilt Experience: Student Nurse Internship Program (VESNIP) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center along with students from other regional nursing programs. Six Belmont nursing students were awarded the highest honors at the culminating awards ceremony held last Friday July 8, 2011 in the Teaching and Learning Center at Vanderbilt. Of the twelve total awards given, six went to Belmont students. Chelsea Stevens and Kathryn Russ received Credo awards, Christopher Russell received a People Pillar award, Emily Tice received the Evidence-Based Practice Award (which came with one-year access to the VUMC biomedical library), Chelsea Shirley (pictured at right with James Barnett, Director of the VESNIP program) received an award for fulfilling all five of VUMC’s pillars, and Katherine McFarland received the Nightingale award for overall professional leadership.
Chelsea Shirley was singled out for her quick thinking in a crisis situation. According to her preceptor, Ms. Shirley “stopped us from giving Amidate because she remembered he [the patient] had an allergy… It was quick thinking and she said it loudly enough for the team to hear. Her preceptor, other nurses, and I want to reward her for an action that prevented an allergic reaction that causes seizures.”
This is the seventh year of the VESNIP program. The program began as a partnership between Belmont School of Nursing and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, an outgrowth of Dr. Leslie Fold’s dissertation work. Dr. Folds leads Belmont’s efforts in the program and noted that “the caliber of students who are participating has increased each year.” It has now expanded to a total of 62 students from four area nursing schools. The VESNIP positions are very competitive and are considered elite opportunities for students from around the region.
All 2011 VESNIP participants from Belmont University are pictured below.
Pharmacy Students Lead Summer Day Camp
Students in Belmont’s School of Pharmacy hosted a Health Sciences Summer Day camp for 18 local middle and high school students this past week. After a morning orientation, the students, who came from Harvest Hands community development organization, were presented a healthcare scenario that involved a patient with high blood pressure. After breaking into teams, the students were then taught to take pulse and blood pressure readings on SimMen in the Inman Center labs.
Following lunch, the students participated in a problem solving process in the Drug Information Center where they searched for the formula for Lisinopril liquid, a common drug for treating hypertension. The students were then able to go to a chemistry lab in McWhorter Hall to see how the drug was made and later watched a video of the patient (SimMan) receiving and responding to the medication. Before departing, all of the students received certificates for their participation in Belmont’s Health Sciences Summer Day Camp.