The next morning, we awoke early (this is a common theme throughout our journey) to a power outage. We ate breakfast by flashlight and loaded up the bus. We were on our way to Kijabe! It was a long drive from Tumutumu, about 4 hours. But what a beautiful drive! We saw the sprawling hillsides of the rift valley, tea plantations, forests and foliage, cliffs, and the sun even peeked out for a little while!
We arrived at Kijabe with the students patiently awaiting our arrival. We were introduced to the faculty and students, and to our partners from the school of nursing. We shared a delicious and bountiful lunch provided by the school, and then split into groups with our partners to tour the hospital.
We were also glad to meet up with Shannon, who has participated in the KHAS trip 2 years in a row. She had been working in the school of nursing as a tutor for the past 5 weeks, and was joining up with us for the second leg of our trip. She was in high spirits and had a lot to say about her own experiences in Kenya over the past month, all while we bombarded her with questions.
Kijabe Hospital was very different from the others that we had toured. It was quite large, busy, and well-lit. There were doctors and nurses from all over the world working in the wards; they stuck out even to us. J My group went to a maternity ward, the labor and delivery rooms, and we even saw some new mothers nursing and a neonate who had just been delivered. We also toured the private ward for patients willing to pay extra, an ICU, the pediatric wards, and the medical/surgical wards for males and females. We were impressed to see that the medical/surgical wards had HCU rooms, which are similar to step-down units where patients that need more close monitoring, but do not require ICU care are housed. They had a separate pediatrics unit for children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.
There were also various outpatient clinics, such as a diabetes and eye clinic, and a TB/HIV clinic. The students explained that HIV is still highly stigmatized, so the hospital decided to combine the two to make it more confidential and easier for patients to seek care. I was impressed to see a palliative and hospice care center, as well as a dental and ENT (ear, nose, and throat) specialist clinics. Kijabe also had their own x-ray and diagnostic laboratories where they were able to process labs in house. Overall, it seemed they were very well-equipped and able to handle the widest variety of both acute and chronic cases.
After the tour of the hospital, we still had some time to spare so Shannon showed up the guest houses she had been staying in during her time at Kijabe, as well as the grounds surrounding the hospital. We saw some baboons right outside her guest house! We were all impressed by how beautifully landscaped the grounds were. It seemed quite obvious that a lot of international tourists and clinicians pass through the area.
Next, we joined some nursing students in their community health class, where they showed us some research data they had collected in the local community. The class had gone out to local homes and asked the residents a questionnaire in order to better understand the perceived health needs of their community. They were now in the process of compiling their data in order to give feedback to the community. We assisted them with tallying answers while they filled us in on why they had asked particular questions and what they hoped to gain from the project. We were impressed to see that they were able to conduct their own research as part of their curriculum, and very interested to hear their thoughts.
Once we wrapped up the class, we all returned to the guest house where we checked in, dropped off our bags, and some of us decided to go on a quick walk through the area before dinner. We power walked through the area in an attempt to see part of the rift valley before rushing back to dinner.
After dinner we cleaned off the tables and started packing medications for the clinic the next morning. That task completed, we cleaned up and hurried off to bed to maximize sleep before another early start.