Mar. 21, 2017
Those who have spent their entire lives in the United States might find it difficult to imagine a hospital not having trained radiographers on staff. However, for those who live in Ghana, this is an all too familiar situation.
The entire country has approximately 200 licensed radiographers to serve its more than 27 million citizens, which means there are inadequate medical imaging services. A lack of educational programs limits the number of individuals who can be trained each year, as does the high cost of attending those programs that are available.
The generous support of ASRT Foundation donors, along with RAD-AID International, is helping to change that. Thanks to a donor-funded community outreach fellowship, I was able to travel to Accra, Ghana, in the fall of 2016, and work at Korle Bu Training Hospital. As a technologist and educator, my main objectives were to support the educational staff of the facility and to identify ways that future outreach volunteers could support new radiography programs in Ghana and West Africa.
I worked closely with Dr. Samuel Opoku, the radiography program director at the University of Ghana, who had started the radiography program in Cape Coast, Ghana. Together, we are developing a standardized needs assessment for launching new programs in Ghana. I also met with the instructors at Korle Bu Training Hospital.
The biggest success of my time there was connecting with the technologists and educators and helping them learn to network with each other to develop a strong core of professional support. Developing new programs and this new network of support will greatly improve patient care in the region.
This project made me realize how I sometimes take things for granted in the United States. Being an educator, I didn’t want to let a teaching opportunity pass me by, so twice I video-chatted with my U.S. students while working with the Ghana students.
I wanted to share this moving experience with them in the hope that it would help them see the importance of supporting our colleagues in developing countries. At the end of the day, our goal is the same: to provide our patients with the best care possible. My hope is that it helped my students to become more globally aware and that they will want to carry into their careers the importance of making our professional community more united across geographical borders. Toward that end, I am working on creating a sister-school program between my program and the one at Korle Bu Training Hospital.
I can’t thank enough all the Foundation donors who make fellowships like mine possible. Because of your support, I was able to help make a difference in the lives of my Ghana colleagues and their patients. The changes you made possible will have a lasting effect on the profession there and will only continue to help improve patient care as more radiographers are able to be trained.
Through RAD-AID, I will continue to be a part of this project, and I strongly encourage donors to continue supporting outreach opportunities. Your continued generosity helps not only the individuals who are able to train as radiographers, but also their families and their entire communities, who now have professionals to provide critical health care. As a donor, you are changing the lives of countless people in developing nations around the world through these outreach projects.
Each project that you help make possible is a step in the right direction, but there is still work to do. Which is why I humbly ask that you continue to support this important work with a gift to the Foundation today.