On the wards

On the whole, staff at Mnazi Mmoja are very welcoming. You will generally have free reign to go to any department and no one will make you feel in the way. There are ward rounds, theatre lists and outpatient clinics you can attend. In general, most days you will finish by midday and have the afternoons free.

There is plenty of opportunity to perform procedures and get up close / scrub in for surgery. You will encounter tropical diseases or very advanced / late presentations that you would never see at home. Its also a great chance to familiarise yourself with the myriad of presentations of Malaria.

Naturally the quality of teaching can vary a lot depending on the particular doctor you shadow, and of course, there are things that are just done differently in Zanzibar. Some days are a bit slow, and because investigations are very limited, there are plenty of cases you will never get a definitive diagnosis for. Most students who come here have some experiences they find frustrating, confusing or harrowing. You will see substandard patient care, and it is not always due to a lack of resources.

There are some areas of the hospitals, particularly the theatres, that are very well equipped. In other areas it can be more apparent that you are in a developing country. Don’t expect have any local anaesthetic on hand when you volunteer to drain an abscess. Don’t be surprised if you go a whole day without seeing a single staff member wash their hands.