Dr. Eunice Msuya, Tanzania

As someone who works at providing care to children in a LMIC, I had a privileged to participate in a Global health course in University of Minnesota. Where I spent 4 weeks in the Global health course and 2 weeks in M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center, at Masonic Children hospital. Firstly I would love to say it was such a great experience meeting different people in the Global health course, it gave me joy to see a lot of people who have the same passion for the global heath. In the Global health course I acquired knowledge and skills which I never had before. Learning pediatric procedural for low resource settings which was practically for me was incredible, I also learned about other people cultures and it was amazing.

At the children hospital I was attached and shadow the attending and residents in the neonatology, pediatric critical care, cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology and pulmonology clinics. I watched how well they worked together as a team and the cooperation from nurses, resident, attending, pharmacist sometimes with a present dietician, respiratory therapists during rounds, and how fast they can get an image when needed, it was different from my place of work where we do not have all that, other than a doctor and nurse only. I learned it improves care to the patients and reduce amount of work to one or two people. Truly watching them I was able to assess ourselves in respective of how we do things.

I would like to express my gratitude to the people who welcomed me in Minnesota, they were so kind, they made sure I experienced different foods, bike riding and so more. Currently I’m back into work, involving in pediatric rounds, clinics and neonatology, I’m also helping other hospital to developing their neonatology unit.

Thank you all, it was a great experience!! 

Dr. Godbless Philipo, Tanzania, My Journey to Minnesota

I remember arriving in the end of April at MSP Airport and being welcomed warmly by faculty members from the department with dinner and them organizing our stay-in, also ensuring I and my fellow were both comfortable. That was so nice and out of their way, and really appreciate it. 

Going through the in-person global health course was phenomenal. Both the lectures and lab work were intense and knowledge enriching. The most amazing part of it was meeting and connecting with different people who work and do different activities aiming at improving health globally. Also, the clinical shadowing particularly in the NICU and their research group was one of the highlights of my visit. It was all wonderful experience indeed. 

Nevertheless, there were bunch of fun activities too; indoor games, yoga classes, the lunch and dinners from different culture cuisines, outings to the museums, art fair and different site visiting. Both painted a colorful memory of the Minnesota experience. 

Being back to my home hospital, able to use the clinical knowledge and the experience I had, has helped in expanding my differentials and widen my critical thinking in being innovative on ways to help deliver good and standard medical care to my patients. Also helping in organizing and facilitating the neonatology conference that involved different hospitals across Africa, has been one of the activities that I have been doing since I came back in June. 

My Minnesota journey was colorful and wonderful in different ways. Painted an amazing picture in my heart that would not trade it for anything!

Warm regards, Godbless. 

Dr. Margaret Nakuya and Dr. Racheal Owomuhangi, Uganda

Having trained in public teaching hospital in a LMIC, which is grappling with challenges that include resource constraints, and luck of advanced technology and cutting edge equipment , it was very filling and thrilling to have exposure in a first world country with state of art technology and latest advancement in health care. During our training, our teachers re-echoed a phrase, “ in a resource rich setting , you can do this or that” and here we were going to this setting, our screams of anticipation could not be missed.

Our journey to USA, which first of all was our very first trip out of the African continent, was full of expectation and excitement not only to see the advanced health care and practice but also to see the first world country. We really looked forward and we knew for sure this would be a very fulfilling experience. The 22 hour flight through Brussels to Chicago and then MSP was not that long, we were not tired and we didn’t experience jet–lag, the excitement was real.

We were received by Dr. Viv at the airport who took us straight to Dr. Slusher’s home and this became our home for the rest of our stay in Minnesota, it was comfortable and warm, and felt like home. We arrived in the USA on May 25, 2023 and we were on time for celebration of Memorial Day, the history behind it was interesting. It was a recognized public holiday in the USA. That same day we took a road trip around Minneapolis as well as around the Twin Cities University, UMN. Such a clean well planned city, not crowded with respect to traffic lights. The city is not congested, not loud and the air is fresh (A person who has been to Kampala will know what we are talking about). The University is such a huge place that you cannot walk around it in a day. It is a city of its own with everything within the vicinity of the campus, accessible to students and staff. At least with the view of Minneapolis, US was what we imagined it would be. The sky scrappers, planned transport system, the big houses with no gates and the beautiful clean roads. The air even smelt different (we remember a time there was pollution coming from the forest fires in Canada. While prof Cindy was so worried about our safety due to the poor air quality, we were excited to have a feel of Uganda in Minnesota).

We spent most of our time during the clinical obsevership at Hennepin hospital, Fairview Masonic Children’s hospital, Discovery clinic and Children’s Minnesota Specialty Center where we gained a lot of knowledge, skill and exposure in latest cutting edge practice in medicine. This experience was through shadowing the specialists, the fellow doctors as well as the resident doctors. Hennepin was our place to go to and we have such fond memories. Hennepin is such a beautiful place with very knowledgeable nurses and very hard working consultants. It is a resource rich setting with everything needed in plenty. Patient care is so advanced and it was so interesting to see the multidisciplinary team work approach to patient care. Part of this team was the therapy dogs, this, we had never seen and was a real shocker to learn about therapy dogs and their role in patient care. On one of the days during a ward round, the therapy dog was brought in. As the rest of the team gravitated toward it, me and Rachael moved back as she whispered to me  “this would instead cause distress back home”, considering our culture,  we are not sure if this would work back home. Hennepin PICU also has a candy break where half way the ward round we get a candy break, each of us would move to the candy drawer which contained an assortment of candy and pick a candy of your choice. During out time Hennepin, we had teachings with Dr. Slusher, who would give us some homework; these were good learning sessions but also gave us a detailed dive into the different procedures and skills especially those that were knew to us. During our time here, we also went to Burns ICU which was another experience all together. The level of infection control is mesmerizing, they have all the resources at their disposal. At Hennepin, we had a case of medical ethical issues and it was very intriguing at the length the hospital goes to handle this, very carefully yet empathetic, this was a very big learning lesson for us. It was also interesting to learn how the commonest reasons for admission in paediatric ICU is very different from ours back home which is infectious causes especially Malaria. The cafeteria at Hennepin is on another level, we ate the best burgers ever. The experience at Hennepin is for lifetime, we smile as we recount our memories there.

The experience at Fairview Masonic Children’s hospital, Discovery and Children was not any different in the level of care and advance in patient care. The residents, fellow and consultants are willing to share the knowledge and are very patient and polite. The relationship between the resident doctors and the consultants is very friendly and makes learning easy, the consultants are always available to supervise and guide the resident doctors. The consultants actually do the procedures themselves, we were inspired when we saw one of the professors do a lumbar puncture of one of the patients. Also, the professors do night calls. The caregivers of the patients are learned and very knowledgeable, they contribute to decision making and asked technical questions. The follow up clinics are not congested as patients keep their appointment time, the patients and their caretakers also can access the medical information, reviews and laboratory results as well as prescription information from an online data base file, which helps them follow up their care and keep them up to speed with any new information. They also use this forum to ask any questions but also receive information and updates from the medical team. This was really superb. Also the diversity of population served is taken care of as they are interpreters (Spanish and Somali which is a significant population here in Minnesota) in case of language barrier.

Obsevership aside, we had a great tour and social events as well. Our host team made it intentional to ensure that we enjoyed our stay in this land of 10,000 lakes. We had dinner outs, went for ice-cream, had a 2 days tour to the biggest mall in the USA, MOA. Stillwater, MN tour with Emily is day to remember, movie nights and black market experience with Christine and Louis (we call them the twins) was lovely, farmers market and visit to Lake Harriet with Kristen was refreshing, celebrations and brunch events at Dr. Slusher and Dr. Howard places was funny (not forgetting Tili), then our dinner with Dr. Viv and John was very funny, that day  we laughed our lungs out then. Those Uber rides to Marshalls, Wallmart, Target, Rosedale mall, Best Buy etc were also fun. Not forgetting the food, the food in America was interesting but for Chic-Fill-A, wow.

When we returned home about 4 months ago, our classmates organized a get together where we met and shared with them our experience with the health care in a resource rich setting and how they do thing differently there. Astonished and lost in awe, one of them said “for sure each doctor or health provider trained in a resource constrained country need to have this experience that does not leave you the same”. We were very lucky to have this opportunity and for the team that sponsored us, we are forever grateful. For everyone that made our stay enjoyable, thank you very much.