Volunteer for Medical Mission Trip (Ghana)

Welcome to Ghana Medical Relief and thank you for considering us as the organization of choice when it comes to going on a medical mission.

We are a nonprofit organization that provides free healthcare services to underprivileged villagers in Ghana. Our organization is made up of volunteers like yourself with a strong desire to help others. At Ghana Medical Relief, we are able to provide our volunteers pursuing a career in medicine with meaning diversified experience by assigning them to work side-by-side with healthcare professionals across multiple specialties. We pride ourselves with our model and provide an opportunity for our volunteers that you won’t find elsewhere. 

So again, thank you for your interest, we look forward to doing amazing things together.

Typical Itinerary: 
Day 1 (Thursday): Travel Day - Departure to Accra, Ghana 
Day 2 (Friday): Arrival in Accra + Opening Reception (meet & greet team) 
Day 3 (Saturday): Travel Day to mission site 
Day 4 (Sunday): Clinic Setup, Orientation + Training Day 
Day 5 (Monday): Opening ceremony + Day 1 of Clinic 
Day 6-8 (Tuesday-Thursday): - 06:00 Breakfast - 07:00 Registration & Triage team arrives at the clinic and start work - 07:45 Rest of team arrives at the clinic and start work - 15:00 Registration & Triage stops for the day - 17:00 Rest of team stops for the day - close clinic - 18:00 Dinner 
Day 9 (Friday): Last Day of Clinic, Reward and Closing Ceremony 
Day 10-11 (Saturday- Sunday): Excursion and Sight-seeing 
Day 12 (Monday): Travel Day - Return Home

Volunteer Positions:
To ensure that our medical school and pre-med student volunteers get a complete and diversified experience, we rotate our volunteers through these various positions. This approach provides our volunteers with the opportunity to shadow our physicians/nurses within the various specialties and experience the complete process for medical care.

Pre-Registration (team of 3 people) - we prefer the local village volunteers to oversee and execute this process. This process begins a few hours before clinic formally opens. Volunteers start early to either assign numbers or record names of patients and get them in a queue for registration.

Registration (team of 6 people) - this is our first interaction with our patients, we want this experience to be caring, respectful and professional. We ask our volunteers to gather general information from patients by completing the registration form. Preference is given for volunteers who speak the local language.

Triage (team of 12 people) - We use our nurses, trained medical school and pre-med students to gather vitals signs (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, etc) so patients can be sorted according to the urgency and nature of their need for care. Training for measuring patients vitals will be available the weekend before arrival at the clinic.

Runner (team of 6 people) - volunteers are asked to take patients from triage to the appropriate waiting area for their appointment (internal medicine, pediatrics, dentistry urology, OB etc..). This role requires a lot of walking back and forth, so a good pair of comfortable footwear is necessary.

OB (1 - 2 people) - volunteers will have the opportunity to work with our OB/GYN Physicians and Nurses assigned to this clinic. Volunteers will have the opportunity to perform lab work (H&H, pregnancy tests, etc...) and operate ultrasound screenings.

Pediatrics (2 - 4 people) - volunteers will have the opportunity to work with our Physicians and Nurses assigned to this clinic. Volunteers will be able to perform malaria testing, check temperatures and dispense medications at the pediatric pharmacy table.

Internal Medicine (6 - 12 people) - volunteers will have the opportunity to work with our Physicians and Nurses assigned to this clinic. Volunteers will be performing BSG testing, Malaria testing, take blood pressure readings and take patients to the pharmacy area for their medication.

Pharmacy (4 - 6 people) - volunteers will be able to fill prescriptions under the guidance of a pharmacist or pharmacy tech. Volunteers from the local village are needed here as translators who can dispense the medications.

Urology (1 - 2 people) - volunteers will have the opportunity to work with our Urologist. Volunteers will work with the urologist team in the evaluation and treatment of genitourinary tract disorders. 

Dentistry (2 - 4 people) - volunteers will have the opportunity to work with our Dentist and Dental Assistants. Some of the responsibilities include: handling of tools, observe extractions and lead short educational seminars while they wait to be seen. 

Seminar (4 - 6 people) - volunteers are asked to lead training seminars on various topics. We cover diabetes, hypertension, dental hygiene and CPR. This is an opportunity for volunteers to continue to develop their public speaking skills and an opportunity for the mission to have a more sustainable impact on the communities. We use local volunteers here to assist in translating as required.

General-Volunteer-Information-GMR-1_2.pdf (ghanamedicalrelief.com)