UBCO Nurses in Zambia: Success at Sefula!

This week Johanna and I (Liona) were at the Sefula Health Clinic. Sefula is a community clinic that services a wide catchment area. Considering that Western Province is one of the lowest resourced areas in Zambia, the presence of this clinic and all it accomplishes is amazing. For every 1000 people living in rural Zambia, there are only 0.02 doctors and 0.34 nurses. Its incredible that community clinics can even exist, let alone thrive like Sefula is.

Us and some of the wonderful nurses and volunteers from Sefula

The secret to success is the volunteer community health workers who work along side the formally trained staff at the clinics. Some days while we were at Sefula there was only one nurse on staff and no doctor, so the bulk of the work was handled by these community health workers. Previously these personnel were working with no formal training, but the Zambian government is currently working on a initiative to formalize and standardize the roles of community health workers. This will allow better care and more efficient services to be provided in clinics like Sefula. According to a pilot study, having support for staff from government entities improved moral and job satisfaction for health workers in Zambia. During our time at Sefula we witnessed one such example of support from the local government. The clinic was up for a semi-annual review and all of the staff, including ourselves, attended a meeting. The clinic received several encouraging commendations from the provincial ministry of health staff.

Besides attending meetings, we were able to participate in many different activities while at Sefula. A highlight for us was the antenatal visits. It was the most hands-on experience we had, and was new learning for us, which was exciting. We got to see assessments and care of women that was similar to what we've seen at home. During one particular experience at home, Johanna got to see how midwives in Penticton practices and noticed that even the equipment they used was very similar to what was in use here. They used a fetal scope at home, and they used one here. It was exciting to learn and see practices that are directly applicable to working in Canada, because much of what we learn here is valuable in an indirect way.