Dr. Carrie Harvey, Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, recently presented at the national clinical conference of the American College of Nurse Practitioners in Denver, Colorado. Over 200 health professionals attended her session entitled, “A Systematic Approach to 12 Lead ECG Interpretation.” The session provided the nurse practitioner with a systematic approach to interpreting the 12 lead ECG. Participants were briefed on major physiologic underpinnings using actual case studies and electrocardiograms. Normal and abnormal 12 lead ECGs were reviewed and a stepwise interpretation
approach was introduced.
Darr awarded grant from APTA
Dr. Nancy Darr, a professor in Belmont’s School of Physical Therapy, was recently awarded a grant from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Section of Pediatrics for her project titled, “Validation of the Pediatric Balance Scale using Rasch Analysis.”
The selection committee said that the grant was well written and that they will support the use of this “Pediatric Balance Scale” in Darr’s clinical pediatric practice.
Plummer is plenary speaker for European Seating Symposium
Dr Teresa Plummer, faculty member in the School of Occupational Therapy, was one of the invited plenary speakers for the European Seating Symposium held in Dublin Ireland earlier this month. Along with Mary Shea, MSOT from Kessler Rehabilitation in New Jersey, Dr Plummer presented the RESNA Practice Guide for the Wheelchair Assessment and Procurement Practice. This document was the outcome of a two year ad hoc committee group of 13 stakeholders from the US. The Practice Guide is and effort to provide structure for the provision of wheeled mobility. Dr Plummer attended several meeting discussing the education of occupational therapy students in the practice of wheelchair assessments.
Pharmacy students contribute to Guatemala City Surgical Center
During the past year, students from Belmont University School of Pharmacy have partnered with Nashville’s Shalom Foundation to renovate the organization’s surgical center and pharmacy in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Last fall, fourth-year pharmacy student Chris McKnight worked with the foundation to design plans for the center’s pharmacy after the entire site underwent a renovation. Although Shalom had doctors, surgeons and nurses on the board to contribute, they didn’t have pharmacists to add to the conversation. McKnight became that voice.
After spending over a week working in the center, McKnight said one of his favorite parts was, “the processes of seeing the pharmacy go from my sketches on the backs of napkins, to fruition in Guatemala City.”
Sara Poe, another fourth year student in Belmont’s program, also had the opportunity to work with the foundation’s center. She was focused on the medicine patients were being prescribed and made daily rounds to ensure accuracy and the installation of proper protocol.
Poe also spoke to the experience of working in such a clinic. “I would say that best moments of the trip came from silence, for silence meant no one was in pain and all was well down the hall. That alone has made me a different person.”
PT student volunteers help coordinate two major community events
During the recent celebration of National Physical Therapy Month, approximately 100 Belmont University Physical Therapy students and faculty volunteered for the sixth annual “Dierks Bentley Miles & Music for Kids” event. Bentley and more than 1,700 people gathered for his annual charity motorcycle ride to benefit Vanderbilt’s Children Hospital and the Children’s Miracle Network. The ride began at the Columbia Springs Harley Davidson and ended at Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville.
The event ended with a concert by Bentley and some friends (Eli Young Band, Charles Kelley from Lady Antebellum, Colt Ford and Josh Thompson entertaining thousands of fans at Riverfront Park. Event Coordinator Mandy McClister said, “It was definitely another great year, and again we could not have done it without the students from the Belmont University School of PT! The students worked harder this year than ever before to make this a success. The leadership should be proud of the way they have represented the University.”
Bentley was also impressed with the volunteers. “We could not have taken this event to the level it now is without the help of my friend Mike Voight and his students at Belmont University School of Physical Therapy. The Belmont students have been integral to the success of this event from the inaugural ride six years ago to its current size. I look forward to working with them again in the future,” Bentley said.
Since the inception of this annual event, $2 million has been raised to benefit the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Miracle Network.
Just one week later, Belmont’s School of Physical Therapy brought more than 100 student volunteers to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure at the Maryland Farms YMCA. With 14,000 racers and more than 10,000 spectators, the volunteers were needed to assist with course setup and takedown, serve as course marshals at the start and finish line, hand out water at course stations and help manage the crowd.
Megan Tisdale, a third-year physical therapy student and student organizer of the volunteer efforts, had a special connection with the event and the people it serves. “Since my mother has breast cancer, I think it’s very important to present people with great opportunities to come together to celebrate life and give to support a cause that is near and dear to millions of hearts… The reward is seeing people come together with passion they have for a loved one.”
The Komen affiliate members, as well as the event management group, were thankful for the dedicated volunteers who participated in the event. “The Belmont team of volunteers from the School of PT made a huge difference to this year’s race,” said Komen Executive Director Patty Harman. “The Race wouldn’t have been so successful without them. We had more people participating this year than ever before, and Belmont jumped in to do whatever was needed to make it a wonderful experience for each person. We can’t thank them enough for all they did.”
Marc Overlock, chairman of the board for the Komen Affiliate, added , “Thank you so much for your every effort, through planning efforts, logistical team packing and mailing and hand-outs, and last but not least Race Village clean up. The Board, Komen Staff and I owe you everything. Please know we today honor your gift of time.”
Pharmacy students reach out to Renewal House
Students in the Belmont University School of Pharmacy Classes 2013 and 2015 participated in a “Trunk or Treat” service project for Renewal House this week. Renewal House is a community where women diagnosed with the disease of addiction undergo comprehensive treatment. Not only does the professional staff at Renewal House serve women battling this disease, but they foster healing, resiliency and educational enhancement for all members of the patient’s family. Students dressed in costume and provided an afternoon of entertainment for the children living at Renewal House.
Students Pilot Project with InspireHealth
Belmont University students are working with a local nonprofit organization to create a national template for communities to improve their residents’ body, heart, mind and spirit using free resources.
In early October, Adjunct Instructor Dane Anthony’s freshman seminar “The Art of Paying Attention” classes worked with Neighborhoods InspireHealth to interview senior citizens in the Sunnyside and 12South neighborhoods. Together the students and nonprofit conducted the first focus group to determine the biggest healthcare challenges facing seniors. The focus group launches a 12-month project within the neighborhoods where students will meet with residents from various demographics.
“Interviewing this community of people widened my eyes to who I was as a part of the world. It was helpful to be a part of this process because it made me realize my role in the community and how important it is to become involved. This process taught me to pay attention to myself, others and the community as a whole,” said Sophie Martin, a freshman studying exercise science, who added that she learned more in casual conversations with the seniors than while asking the assigned questions.
“The amount of rich knowledge and wisdom with which they spoke about their personal experiences was heartwarming. Just in one simple hour I felt I had gained more from a conversation with strangers than I had in a semester of school. They were full of advice on how to avoid certain health issues as we aged, hints on where to go in town, and simply to live life to its fullest,” Martin said. “I left that morning feeling as if I had learned how to appreciate life more than ever before. I am forever grateful to have been presented with this amazing opportunity for self-growth and to have met such exquisite individuals.”
Student worked in groups to weave through the narratives they captured and to look for solutions for overarching themes, such as lack of transportation, access to healthy food options and financial constraints on a fixed income.
“A number of the things that we do in the course are to identify things that contribute to your world view and things that you take for granted. This was a great exercise for them to realize the things that they may take for granted, such as healthcare, insurance, means of income, access to transportation,” Anthony said. “The students were excited that this is the initial project for something they hope will become a national model. We had an opportunity to participate on the ground floor.”
Students will present their findings and propose solutions to Neighborhoods InspireHealth on Oct. 20.
“Having worked on projects with Belmont in the past, the president of the Sunnyside Association first suggested working with the university, and then actually helped us out by setting up an introduction. We were very excited to work with Belmont because we knew how service oriented it is, and honestly we feel as if the University is simply an extension of the neighborhood so it seemed like a great match,” said Heather Dubuque, Neighborhoods InspireHealth’s vice president of marketing and communications. “One of our main goals is to bring all of the different parts of our community together, so bringing the students in to work with the seniors, growing families, teenagers, shut ins, artists is another step towards reaching that goal.”
Neighborhoods InspireHealth President Dana El Gammal said Belmont students’ participation in this initial focus group will drive the direction of the pilot program. The nonprofit launched its 7 Habits of Healthy Neighborhoods program in August with a plan to create a template that provides all of the tools necessary for others communities to execute it successfully. The pilot program will conclude next summer.
“We chose to launch the community initiative within the 12South/Sunnyside community not only because as an organization we are connected to it, but because of its diverse group of people, the active neighborhood associations, the compassionate business community that has been growing within it, and the resources we knew already existed,” Dubuque said. “The whole intent of the program is to learn, assess and create avenues that help the entire community reach their health goals and obtain the health tools necessary to becoming their healthiest self.”
Belmont students earn trip to national Clinical Pharmacy Challenge
Students from Belmont University School of Pharmacy are among eight elite teams competing in this weekend’s national Clinical Pharmacy Challenge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP), the competition began weeks ago with student teams from 86 pharmacy schools throughout the United States. The Belmont team has advanced through several online rounds of competition and will face a team from Campbell University School of Pharmacy on Saturday in the national quarterfinals. If they continue to win, they will advance to the semifinals on Sunday afternoon and finals on Monday morning. Each match is divided into 3 segments: a trivia/lightning segment, a clinical case segment, and a Jeopardy-style segment.
Members of Belmont’s team include: Kimberly Bentley, a third-year student; Rebecca Lucas, a fourth-year student; and Lee Rembert, a fourth-year student. Team alternates include: John Barnwell and Cortney Manning, both third-year students. Serving as faculty sponsors for the team are Dr. Cathy Ficzere and Dr. Rachel Franks.
According to Dr. Ficzere, “Our students would not be able to accomplish what they have done without the foundation they have received here at Belmont. The questions that they have to answer cover almost every aspect of pharmacy practice. They must draw upon knowledge of pharmacologic and pharmacokinetic drug activity, current recommendations for drug therapy, and biostatistics and clinical trial design. Added to this, they must answer the questions as a team, under time constraints, and, in some cases, choosing the best answer, not a ‘black-and-white’ right answer.”
Dr. Philip Johnston, School of Pharmacy Dean, added: “We are in some tough company in the finals, but we have been competing with well established schools in all the previous rounds and obviously scoring very well. What is so impressive to me is that we have students competing who have not completed all of their electives nor their final clinical rotations, yet are showing they have great critical thinking skills, work well as a team, and can apply their knowledge. We are absolutely thrilled with the success of the team, the faculty coaches and supporters, and happy that this reflects well on Belmont.”
The other six teams in the quarterfinals, in addition to those from Belmont and Campbell, are from pharmacy schools at Butler University, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, University of the Pacific, University of Utah, and Western University of Health Sciences.
More information about the competition and results this weekend can be found at www.accp.com/stunet.
UPDATE: The Belmont University School of Pharmacy rose above 85 competing schools to rank No. 5 in a national pharmacy and clinical skills competition. The team lost to Campbell University College of Pharmacy by less than 300 points in the quarter-final match. Both teams were quick on the buzzer and displayed a broad knowledge of clinical pharmacy. Ultimately, the winner of the match came down to the last 300 point question.
Wofford named principal co-investigator for community health project
Dr. Linda Wofford, Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, recently was named as co-principal investigator for Project Diabetes, an eleven-month grant from the State of Tennessee to impact obesity rates and diabetes incidence in the high risk African American school-aged population.
The grant will evaluate an existing after-school program at McGruder Family Resource Center in north Nashville, and will include participation from Belmont undergraduate and graduate nursing students. The program uses the CASTLES curriculum to help the children increase their physical activity, develop skills to improve nutritional choices, and improve self-esteem related to school performance. In addition to evaluation of the existing after-school program, the long-term focus is to impact a community identified need (increasing childhood obesity) with a sustainable community-based program.
The program includes several community partners: McGruder Family Resource Center, United Way, Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Vanderbilt Center for Health Services, and Belmont University School of Nursing.
College of Health Sciences hosts health fair
Fourth-year pharmacy student Elizabeth Cain spent Wednesday morning using free hand sanitizer to lure passers-by to visit her peers at Belmont’s first Health Fair. The fair offered an unprecedented opportunity for Cain’s classmates to gain hands-on experience while on campus, she said.
“This is a great opportunity for students to test their skills, give flu shots and glucose tests. It is a great way for us to share our knowledge,” said Cain while volunteering at the fair. “It is a free service with informative information, and it showcases the graduate schools that are taking part.”
Students and faculty from the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing joined with University Health Services to host the five-hour Health Fair which put wellness and preventive health resources within reach of employees and students with free health screenings, pamphlets and prizes. The event in the McWhorter Hall and the Inman Center lobbies marked the launch of a year of monthly seminars on health and wellness as well as current events in health care. It also showed people the unique resources we have right here on our campus, said Director of Health Services Katy Wilson.
“We wanted to make people aware of programs we have and wellness opportunities in the Belmont community,” said Christin Murphy, a graduate assistant in the Department of Fitness and Recreation. She took the body mass index of people who stopped at her booth and encouraged them to lower their numbers by signing up for personal training sessions and fitness classes in Beaman.
“It is important to get out to students that health care is important at any age. This fair could persuade undergrads to consider careers in the health sciences field,” said fourth-year pharmacy student Amanda Harris.
“We are developing a drug education program and need to conduct surveys on drug abuse on college campuses,” said third-year pharmacy student Jaime Tausend, also head of Generation Rx, a patient care project through the American Pharmacy Association that educates people about prescription drug abuse prevention. “The fair lets me reach out to college kids I would not see in the community and get the word out to faculty and staff to help us jump start our program”
The Health Fair coincided with lectures on bath salt abuse, building relationships with healthcare providers and total-body wellness for colleges students. During “10 Things Every College Student Needs to Know About Their Health,” physical therapy students discussed healthy eating, gym etiquette and sleep deprivation as well as shared free smart phone applications to help students tract their calorie intake and jogging routes.
Opportunities throughout the day included: blood pressure, glucose, lipids and bone density screenings; backpack awareness and CPR demonstrations; and information on tobacco cessation, breast cancer awareness, counseling, healthy eating, self defense and recreation.
Wilson said Health Services plans to host a similar health fair during a spring basketball game to reach Belmont’s neighbors and sports fans.
Pharmacy students complete service project
Students in the Belmont University School of Pharmacy Classes 2013 and 2015 recently participated in a service project for Preston Taylor Ministries. This non-profit organization serves students (K-12) in the local area by providing educational and faith-based initiatives. Preston Taylor Ministries was founded in 1998 to confront problems such as drug use, gang related activities, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy and poor school performance. The Belmont students donated cleaning supplies and their time to make this a welcoming and safe environment for all those who attend after school programs.
OT students assist older drivers
Students and faculty from the School of Occupational Therapy recently participated in a CarFit Technician Training and CarFit Event at the Fifty Forward Center in Nashville. CarFit is an educational program that offers older adults the opportunity to check how well their personal vehicles “fit” them. This national program is coordinated between the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), the American Automobile Association (AAA), and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).
This CarFit Event was done locally in conjunction with Ollie Jackson from TDOT, Jim Paris from AARP, and Rose Boyd from the Commission Council for Strategic Initiatives. Participating students were required to become CarFit Technicians through a training conducted by Dr. Ruth Ford, Associate Professor at Belmont and CarFit Event Coordinator.
The CarFit program provides information and materials on community-specific resources that could enhance their safety as drivers, and/or increase their mobility in the community. Older drivers are often the safest drivers in that they are more likely to wear their seatbelts, and less likely to speed or drink and drive. However, older drivers are more likely to be killed or seriously injured when a crash does occur due to the greater fragility of their aging bodies.
Driver safety programs improve adult driver safety by addressing cognitive abilities and skills, however, older drivers can also improve their safety by ensuring their cars are properly adjusted for them. A proper fit in one’s car can greatly increase not only the driver’s safety but also the safety of others. Graduates of Belmont’s OT Programs are learning first hand how to assure driving safety for older drivers through driver assessment and intervention.
PT Professor appointed to national APTA committee
Dr. Cathy Hinton, School of Physical Therapy Professor, was appointed to the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) Finance and Audit Committee. The APTA is the national organization that represents physical therapists within the United States. The appointment is for a four year term, and the committee is tasked with providing the Board of Directors of the APTA with advice and counsel regarding financial commitments in light of the association’s strategic plan. To provide that overview role, the members of this committee are involved with review of the association’s income, expenditures, and investments.
Faculty from university in Iraq visit Belmont School of Pharmacy
Belmont University recently hosted faculty from Hawler Medical University in Arbil, capital of Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Belmont Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutical Science Andy Webster and Director of International Student Services Kathryn Skinner oversaw the training of the four faculty members from Hawler’s College of Pharmacy in health care informatics, pharmacy management and administration, communication, counseling and patient assessment, and didactic and clinical experiential education.Discussions included syllabus design and development, introduction to modern pedagogical principles and practices and an introduction to designing, developing and maintaining contemporary clinical practice environments. The Kurdish faculty became qualified as affiliate faculty members of Belmont’s School of Pharmacy.
Webster visited Kurdish Iraq in 2009 and was appointed to the Kurdistan Regional Government Curriculum Development Project.
“The focus of this project was to modify and update the professional pharmacy curriculum for the colleges of pharmacy in the Kurdish region of Iraq. This newly developed curriculum provides students a broad, solid grounding in the basic and clinical sciences, epistemologies and values that define contemporary pharmacy practice,” Webster said. “This sets a new educational standard for both students and faculty in that area of the world.”
School of Nursing faculty members co-author published article
Dr. Beth Hallmark and Dr. Sharon Dowdy are co-authors of an article published this month in Nursing Education Perspectives, a bi-monthly journal of the National League for Nursing. Dr. Hallmark is director of the College of Health Sciences Simulation Center and Dr. Dowdy is an associate professor in the School of Nursing.
The study explored the effects of deliberate practice on the retention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) psychomotor skills among nursing students. The practice sessions were short, six minutes a session one time a month. Differences in performance between students who had deliberate practice and a control group, with no practice beyond the initial training, were compared every three months for one year. The intervention group performed better than the control over the 12 months. There is a need in nursing education for deliberate practice of relevant and high-use skills for students to improve their performance and gradually develop their expertise.
The article can be viewed at the National League for Nursing website.
Pharmacy Professor Published in Cancer Research Journal
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Assistant Professor Edgar S. Diaz-Cruz had an article on published in the Cancer Research Journal on Aug. 15. The article, titled “Comparison of increased aromatase versus ERa in the generation of mammary hyperplasia and cancer,” discusses whether development of breast cancer caused by over-expression of the receptor results from the same or different aberrant molecular pathways than that induced by increased local estrogen production through mammary-targeted aromatase expression.
Family Celebrates Two Generations of OT Graduates
Kayla Prince graduated from the School of Occupational Therapy’s Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy program in August, joining her mother, Renee Sims, as a Belmont alumna. Sims, a 2003 graduate of Belmont’s School of Occupational Therapy program, said she has a son and daughter-in-law that also are Occupational Therapy Assistants and considering Belmont’s weekend graduate program in Occupational Therapy as an academic option.
Occupational Therapy Doctoral Student Receives $10,000 Scholarship
Amber Alverson, an occupational therapy doctoral student (class of 2012), was chosen as a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities 2011 Long Term Trainee recipient and will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship. Each Long Term Trainee must serve a minimum of 300 hours in activities to promote advocacy, leadership, and development of culturally competent care.
Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities focuses on preparing health professionals to assume leadership roles and develop interdisciplinary team skills, advanced clinical skills and research skills, in order to meet the complex needs of children with neuro-developmental related disabilities. The program is federally funded by the Department of Health and Human Services through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau LEND Grant. It is administered through Vanderbilt University’s Kennedy Center which collaborates with Belmont University (faculty advisor Lorry Liotta-Kleinfeld), Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University, Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, Tennessee Disabilities Coalition and the University of Tennessee, Nashville campus.
Back Home from Ghana
2011 Mission to Ghana
from Renee Brown
We arrived safely back in Nashville about 7:30 this morning after a long flight, a little tired and in need of a shower. Who would have thought that we would have needed to go to West Africa to get out of the Nashville heat! We are looking forward to Doritos, diet cokes, salad, bacon egg and cheese biscuits, bacon cheeseburgers and some sleep, as well as seeing our family and friends.
We want to thank everyone who supported us for this trip to Ghana through your thoughts, prayers, and financial gifts. It was a wonderful experience. We truly were humbled by the hospitality of the Ghanaian people and all they shared with us while we were there. We laid the ground work for continued collaborations in the future and came away with some new friends.
Saturday in Ghana
2011 Mission to Ghana
from Sarahann Callaway
What an exciting day full of new experiences!! We woke up bright and early to take a Tro-Tro ride provided by Nana Yaw (our driver for the week) to Kakum National Forest. It took about 4 hours to get there because of traffic but we safely arrived shortly before lunch. We took a guided tour up to the top of the rainforest. Our guide told us that there are over 300 species of identified animals in Kakum including insect, birds, bongos, not the drums, and a small herd of elephants. Kakum is famous for their wildlife and their suspension bridge canopy walk over the top of the rainforest!
The suspension system consists of 7 bridges connected by platforms at the top of the rainforest. The tallest bridge was 130 ft above the floor of the forest!!! We all survived!
After leaving Kakum, we decided we needed a little more adventure in our day so headed to Hans Cottage Botel famous for their 40 crocodiles. For the small fee of about a buck fifty, we got to touch and stand over a crocodile. Don’t worry none of us became amputees although if we did we know how to make the prosthesis now!
We ate lunch there and then headed toward the coast. Because it was a little later in the afternoon, we opted to go to Elmina Slave Castle because it was closer than Cape Coast Slave Castle. Elmina Castle is the oldest European building in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was a Portuguese fort for about 150 years then it was taken over by the Dutch and then 100 years later the British had rule over it.
We toured the castle and listened to the horrific and humbling stories the tour guide had to tell. It started off as a place to ship goods to Europe and soon it became a place to ship Africans to Europe and the new world. The Africans would march for weeks from surrounding countries before they would get to Elmina or Cape Coast. Upon arrival to Elmina they would be kept for 1-2 months before they passed through the “door of no return.” Many would die before they left the castle and many more would die on the ships as they were transported to the various countries. It was an eye opening experience that words cannot describe.
We got back late from Elmina so we decided to sleep in on our last day in Ghana. We did a little bit of shopping in the morning and then met up with Anna (the PT from the university) in the afternoon to take a tour of the art gallery in Accra. Right now we are sitting in the Accra airport waiting about one more hour before we board our flight. We can’t wait to share with you the amazing trip we have had. Thank you so much for your love and support!
Friday in Ghana
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!
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.