Inverness student set for medical mission to Zambia
She is aiming to tackle widespread ignorance of basic health procedures
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AN INVERNESS student nurse is preparing to spend six weeks working with communities in Africa in the spring.
Niki Spence will travel to Zambia with three other students to help out at four health centres, an orphanage and a hospice.
The Stirling University students will teach the local people who use the facilities about health education, particularly sexual health, nutrition and how to deal with minor ailments and injuries.
Each member of the party has to raise between £1,500 and £2,000 for the trip to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, in February.
Miss Spence, who studies at the university’s Highland campus in Inverness, is planning a ceilidh night at Raigmore Recreation Hall on February 6.
Miss Spence, of Drumossie Avenue, said: “It has honestly been my dream to go to Africa since I was very young. So I'm looking forward to everything about the trip and intend to take it all in.”
The 24-year-old, who began her career in social care with Highland Council, hopes to go into the Army when she graduates.
Fiona Doherty, a teaching fellow at the university's department of nursing and midwifery and one of the volunteer selection panel, said the experience would be a “tremendous benefit” to the students.
She said: “Our students will soon find that, while tuberculosis, meningitis and HIV and Aids are rife, the biggest threats to people's health in Zambia are the extensive poverty and ignorance, which result in problems such as poor drinking water facilities and sewage systems.
“When they come home, they will have to deliver a presentation focusing on who they taught, what they taught and how they taught, while in the field. They will get tremendous benefits from the project through experience of another country and the recognition of the influence of cultural beliefs. It will be hands-on and challenging, but it will build their confidence in everything from communicating ideas to presentation skills. And their experiences will give us a better idea of how best to prepare other nursing students for similar work in future.”
