By: Bethsy Jacob, Pharm.D. Candidate c\/o 2014<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
On November 16, 2011, Dr. Joia Mukherjee, Medical Director of Partners in Healthcare (PIH), presented for GlobeMed at Columbia University. \u00a0Manzi Anatole, a hired nurse in Rwanda, accompanied Dr. Mukherjee.\u00a0 Along with a handful of her students, Dr. Joanne Carroll arranged a trip to the open event.\u00a0 The lecture highlighted key issues that affect healthcare in developing areas, particularly in Rwanda.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Mukherjee, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not as inclusive as it should be. \u00a0This declaration embodies two covenants \u2013 the covenant of civil and political rights and the covenant of social and economic rights (such as the right to education and health). \u00a0Too often in the United States, human rights are narrowed on political and civil rights \u2013 there is not enough focus on the other sets of rights, which are considered to be more like privileges. \u00a0Yet, in third world countries, basic human needs are unmet. \u00a0Therefore, their first concern is food for the family, followed by education and shelter. \u00a0As important as it may be in the United States, voting (a political right) is not their primary need.<\/p>\n
To provide these basic human needs, countries like Rwanda need sufficient money in their treasuries. \u00a0These nations heavily rely on borrowing, which forces them to create a market-like economy and increase the private sector while minimizing the public sector.\u00a0 PIH works with these governments to support basic the ideology of healthcare as a human right (with the belief that the government is the only way that healthcare can be supported as a right). \u00a0In the words of Dr. Mukherjee, \u201cIf it is a real right, then it is based on citizenship, not a charity.1<\/sup>\u201d\u00a0 PIH also works side-by-side with the government to assist with public sector projects, such as the establishment of hospitals.<\/p>\n As with many third world countries, this problem is even more sophisticated in Rwanda because of the poor skill set of healthcare staff. \u00a0Even with a supported government, the staff does not have the training necessary to treat patients. \u00a0Most nurses in Rwanda have high school level education and play multiple roles (e.g. doctors and pharmacists). \u00a0There are many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) \u00a0that provide training to these nurses, but this has turned out to be counter-productive because training pulls large portions of the nurses from their clinical settings all at once, leaving few personnel to care for patients. \u00a0Training via PowerPoint presentations is not efficient to the extent of helping these nurses on a clinical, practical level. \u00a0There is no one to \u201ccatalyze\u201d the training, and there is no follow-up or evaluate how well the nurses understand and practice the training they receive.<\/p>\n Manzi, Dr. Mukherjee\u2019s colleague, realized the flaw within this system. \u00a0According to Manzi, it is better to have poor quality of care than to pull the nurses from clinics that are already under-staffed. \u00a0However, is there another option? \u00a0Yes, it is to provide support and mentorship to these nurses on a local level.\u00a0 There is a program to train district nurses, who, in turn, mentor the local nurses within their healthcare clinics.\u00a0 These district nurses also help to apply the verbal training the local nurses receive. \u00a0Through mentoring, the nurses can actualize what they learn.<\/p>\n Malaria, HIV, STIs, and opportunistic infections are significant causes of deaths in Rwanda, where the life expectancy is roughly 58 years. \u00a0The situation requires an intervention to reduce morbidity and mortality.\u00a0 Mentorship is an effective, evidence-based intervention, but there are still many challenges ahead, with nurses leaving clinics to find other jobs, limited equipment despite proper training, and low levels of education.\u00a0 It is also difficult to expand the program to other districts in Rwanda. \u00a0Reasonably, Manzi said, \u201cWriting down on a piece of paper is different than actual practice. You can have a very good vision, but you need support. It is not enough to have a good vision.2<\/sup>\u201d \u00a0Even though we know what to do in Rwanda, there are too many challenges and too little support to fully promote and expand the intervention.<\/p>\n As pharmacy students, we train to cure, improve symptoms, and\/or limit the progression of diseases and conditions. \u00a0Many people do not have access to professionals with proper skill sets, technologies, vaccines, or medications. \u00a0With our background, we should be aware of, and perhaps even support, causes that promote healthcare and social justice. \u00a0As Dr. Paul Farmer says, \u201cit is important to believe in human rights in spite of your own troubles.3<\/sup>\u201d \u00a0That goal is to change our world where no one starves, drinks impure water, or lives in fear of the powerful and violent. \u00a0That world is a utopia and this world is a dystopia. \u00a0Moving progressively away from this dystopia moves us progressively towards something better and more human.2<\/sup><\/p>\n More information about Partners in Health is available at www.pih.org<\/a><\/p>\n Additional reading: www.faceaids.org<\/a> and www.globemed.org<\/a><\/p>\n SOURCES:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n By: Bethsy Jacob, Pharm.D. Candidate c\/o 2014 – On November 16, 2011, Dr. Joia Mukherjee, Medical Director of Partners in Healthcare (PIH), presented for GlobeMed at Columbia University. \u00a0Manzi Anatole, a hired nurse in Rwanda, accompanied Dr. Mukherjee.\u00a0 Along with a handful of her students, Dr. Joanne Carroll arranged a trip to the open event.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[343,2227,35,314,20,23,376,2264,101,363,968,1625,212,11,167,184,42,628,187,2252,453,1061],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-and","tag-ebola-virus-disease","tag-food","tag-for","tag-health","tag-hiv","tag-human","tag-malaria","tag-november","tag-of","tag-one","tag-or","tag-paper","tag-pharmacy","tag-poor","tag-problem","tag-public","tag-right","tag-side","tag-symptoms","tag-system","tag-with"],"views":792,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n