Visit to UKZN

Today we visited the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN), which stands atop a hill with a spectacular view of downtown Durban. We arrived at the School of Nursing to a warm greeting from Busi Bhengu (Dean of School of Nursing) and Busi Ncama (Nursing Faculty). We brought gifts for the University such as nursing textbooks and resources that will hopefully prove useful. After our initial meeting we soon discovered that the water had been shut off from the entire building, however the Dean insisted that we sit for tea before beginning our day. As has been consistent with all the wonderful people we have met on this trip, the hospitality of Busi Bhengu and Busi Ncama proved no different. We waited in the Visiting Professors office and were presented with a display of biscuits and tea to share.

We had the opportunity to sit in on a lecture, which proved to be extremely interesting. The class size for third year students is between 7-10 and the teaching philosophy at the University is Problem Based Learning. Nursing students work through case studies and conduct the lectures, with the guidance of their professor. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to hear a presentation of a research proposal by one of the PhD students who was planning on conducting research into home based care for HIV infected individuals in an area of Mozambique, with which he was familiar.

We went to the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, which is a referral hospital that provides quaternary care. We had a wonderful tour of the facilities with the Dean from UKZN, including: the ER, ICU, Oncology, Pediatrics and the Help Desk, which is the command center for all of the out sourced work in case linens are needed or equipment malfunctions. We had the opportunity to speak with various nursing officers who were very generous with their time in explaining nursing care on their units. Tomorrow we will be visiting a hospital with far less resources, so it will be interesting to see the differences between the two.

All in all we had a great learning experiences regarding health care in South Africa.

Meredith

P.S. We've kept our word and there are pictures up on our older posts, so please take a look.