Global health has become a compelling part of the medical training curriculum. Physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers often see their roles as expanding out to other cultures for both humanitarian reasons and for professional ones. There’s a saying that by teaching, we learn what we need to know. Because the members of the Madaktari team stay in the country for longer periods of time, they have a unique opportunity to hone their diagnostic skills, to learn to work with fewer resources, and to be less reliant on technology. Volunteers report that they return from their Madaktari experience with a greater sense of confidence – of pride – in the fact that they’ve utilized all of their medical training and developed an ability to adapt to challenging medical issues.

Volunteers with Madaktari experience a different culture in a hands-on, immersive way. They see a different level of need, dramatic evidence of why they are there. People are people everywhere, but in sub-Saharan Africa, the impact of volunteer efforts is measurable and gratifying. The investment in the time and energy that it takes to train others, to empower local healthcare workers to do better - to go farther - creates almost immediate results.

Our core activity is teaching and training medical staff in the field of cardiology. It is our vision to become the leading NGO in sub-Saharan Africa in medical training in cardiology.

Currently, our biggest cardiology program was established in 2012 when Muhimibili National Hospital joined forces with a group of cardiologists from Centra Health and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to start an interventional cardiology program.

This program would allow heart catheterizations to be done on patients in Tanzania who have blockages in their heart needing stents. Along with the need for training of interventional cardiologists, there was a need for training of the cath lab staff, such as nurses and cardiovascular technicians.

Madaktari has supported dozens of volunteers on missions to the cath lab since 2013. These volunteers were cardiologists, ICU nurses, cath lab nurses and managers, and x-ray technicians. Their primary focus was to train the local staff to increase their knowledge and provide better services.

The volunteer opportunities are endless, and particularly the need for nurse training and technician training is in high demand. The staff at Muhimibili are always welcoming of new volunteers to help the "train forward" method Madaktari emphasizes, and to help the continuum of care of the patient.

Some of the specialties we are seeking include: Intensive care nurses, step down cardiac care nurses, neuro ICU and step down nurses, interventional cardiology x-ray technologist, Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialists (RCIS), and cardiac cath lab nurses.

If you are considering getting involved with volunteer work, and want to learn more about opportunities, you can contact us directly by clicking on the link below.

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