My friend Emma and I enjoyed hiking and wandering around Ndere Island, a national reserve in Lake Victoria, that protects several species of wildlife.

Author: Jenova Kempkes | Major: Biomedical Engineering | Summer 2022

I recently spent the summer of 2022 in Kisumu, Kenya. When I left the country, I quite frankly had no idea what I was going to be doing for the next two months. After arriving in the country, I was so overwhelmed by the number of internship opportunities my brain went numb. I was given 48 hours to determine a research question that involved quantitative data and find an organization I wanted to work with. I chose to work in the Emergency Department (ED) at the level five hospital: Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH). For reference, Kenya’s healthcare system operates on a tiered system beginning with community health volunteers that perform household visits at level one all the way up to extremely specialized hospitals that number in the single digits throughout the entire country at level six. As a level five facility, JOOTRH served over 5,000,000 people in western Kenya.

At the hospital I had the opportunity to aid nurses and shadow an emergency physician. I assisted with sutures, catheter placement, medication preparation and distribution in addition to hemorrhage control in emergency trauma response situations. The skills that I learned were invaluable as I was able to follow a strict, “See one, assist one, do one,” policy as the hospital put it. However, I also learned soft skills such as how to cope with emotionally and mentally challenging situations. Over the summer I witnessed some severe traumas where you see the worst human beings can do to each other. I witnessed patients slip through the cracks in the healthcare system and suffer as consequence. It was emotionally taxing as I had to process what I was feeling, what action I could take and at times what action I could not take. I am grateful for my time in the hospital even with the challenges because it exposed me to an entirely new way of thinking and one that will benefit me as I pursue emergency medicine in the military. I learned how to adapt and think quick on my feet to solve problems in a limited resource environment.

I also learned a lot from my exposure to the culture. For the first time, I lived in a country where people do not live to work like we do in the United States. In Kenya people work to live. Their priority is spending quality time with people. The biggest example of this is in the way they treat time. Sharing a meal with someone was never a one-hour transaction where the points where addressed and then everyone leaves in their own direction. Instead, just grabbing tea with someone could take an hour because it is important to spend quality time with people. There is little worry about the next meeting or obligation because strict time schedules are not followed. Enjoying the moment and the people you are with is more important. As a student who has always had a full class schedule and worked several jobs, I am always caught up in my obligations and checking things off my to do list. Experiencing what life can be like without obligations dictating my everyday made me realize I needed to adjust my own priorities upon returning to the Untied States. I have a new appreciation for the time people spend together.

Although my summer abroad started with an overwhelming and lost feeling as I was thrown into a brand-new country and quickly had to make major decisions, I ended the summer with a new confidence in my self and several new skills to add to my tool belt. I was able to complete a research project on patient satisfaction within the emergency department at the hospital and I made several connections within the community. In fact, I became a social media manager for an emerging private hospital that is focused on providing free healthcare to vulnerable patient populations. I never intended to find such a position at the beginning of the summer, but by appreciating the Kenyan’s priority on human connection, I found many unique opportunities that will extend beyond my time in Kenya.