Lisa Gibbons

I’ve travelled before, but nowhere like Africa. I wanted to do something for my elective and realised that this was probably my last chance to do something like this.

I’ve got a daughter as well, so it was hard leaving her for four weeks, but I knew I wouldn’t get this opportunity again. I just wanted to see for myself how the hospitals in Ghana worked.

You can read things and watch things, but you don't understand them until you go.

My friend and I met at the airport, and we were both really excited for the trip. We didn’t arrive in Ghana until late, but we had a quick tour of the Work the World house, and it was much bigger than I thought it would be — it was like a villa.

The following day, we went straight to the hospital for our induction, where we met the ward staff for the first time. Then the Work the World team took us out for a tour of the town so we could get our bearings.

The team showed us where we could exchange money and took us to a place where we could get a local SIM card with minutes and data so we could all stay in touch while we were there. It was cheap and lasted me the whole 4 weeks. We walked around the local markets and got some advice about where to buy things.

On Tuesday, I started my nursing placement. We saw differences right away. There was a lot of malaria, which obviously isn’t something we see much of in the UK, if at all. The cases were of all ages, from babies to the elderly.

We saw a lot of cellulitis as well. We do get that in the UK, but never at the depth we saw it at in Ghana, where it was much more advanced. We saw way more road traffic collision injuries than you do in the UK as well.

For me, it was about seeing that local hospital staff didn’t have a lot of equipment compared to us, but they make do with what they have. It was really impressive, like using the end of a latex glove as a tourniquet. They don’t need all the fancy equipment — they’ve just learned to adapt.

- We were all close-knit by the end of the trip -

We went out into the community to do some community nursing as well, and that was amazing. The community team was so welcoming, and so were the patients we visited. They even offered us food, even though they didn’t have much. We travelled out to see people who couldn’t get to the hospital, like the elderly and people who couldn’t afford the transport.

They lived in make-shift buildings and shacks, but they seemed happy with what they had. The kids were all smiling and laughing and coming up to say hello.

- Visiting the community was a life-changing experience -

We spent time with lots of different people, taking blood pressure and things like that. I’m much more confident doing manual blood pressure after that experience because we did so many under supervision.

Outside of the placement experience, we did some travelling around Ghana as well. We went to a place in Takoradi itself called Monkey Hill, which is like a rainforest in the middle of the city. We weren’t lucky enough to see many monkeys, but a local guide showed us around some of the nearby villages, and it was a lovely afternoon.

The big trip we did was to Mole National Park. On the way there, we stopped off to do horse riding, and the area was beautiful — it was a real “Oh my God, this is amazing” moment. There was a huge lake and we went on a boat trip across that as well.

We stayed over in a city called Kumasi before heading to the national park the following morning. The hotel we stayed in was probably the most beautiful hotel I’ve ever stayed in. The rooms were amazing, and so was the food. And when you’re in the pool, you’re right above an elephant watering hole, so you can see them all drinking below.

If you’re thinking about going on a trip like this, there’s nothing to think about. Just go. Even if you go on your own, you’ll make friends from the off and I made friends there that I know will be lifelong. I still talk to the people who are out there as well.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and you won’t get anything like it anywhere else.