Elective Abroad coordinates elective placements in  Ghana. We specialize in Secondary health institutions (popularly called District Hospitals). District hospitals are manned by medical doctors who have been trained to handle all forms of ailments, ranging from surgical to medical. 

All basic emergency surgeries such as Caesarean Sections, Salpingectomies, appendicectomies, splenectomy etc are undertaken by the secondary institutions. Electives appendicectomies, hysterectomies, herniorhaphies, cystectomies, lipomectomies etc are also carried out in the Secondary health institution.
District hospitals are usually the first point of call by most patients hence students get the opportunity to see all forms of cases most of which they might have only read about in text books.

Elective Abroad believes in the hands-on electives hence our placements are intended to offer students with lots of the hands-on experience they need for their future career. Our placements are safe, focused, well structured and designed specifically to meet the needs of students.

During elective period students will be assigned to all clinical departments and will be part of all the work of those departments. They will be an important member of the clinical team under the supervision of the health personnel in charge. Depending on the duration chosen by a student, this schedule is re-adjusted appropriately to ensure that the student benefits maximally from his or her visit. The average programme duration for elective is four weeks. For such a four-week period the student spends 2 weeks at the Hospital, one week at a health centre and three days at a CHPS centre.

The elective is to practice clinical medicine within the context of a Ghanaian culture and identify the common diseases that affect the population. Students will have an opportunity in history taking, procedural skills, physical exams, clinical decisions concerning patient care and patient admissions etc.  Furthermore, students will experience how doctors worked in an environment where resources are limited and to develop their own clinical skills. To achieve these aims, students will spend their first few weeks under the supervision of the doctors working in all departments of the hospital such as out- patient clinics and A and E. Within this period students will be able to identify some key illnesses that affect the population, which are mainly malaria, hypertension, type two Diabetes etc. They will also learn the central importance of a good history and clinical examination in formulating a diagnosis where basic tests are not easily accessible. These will sometimes prove to be a challenge due to the translation that would be required from Twi to English. Every student however goes through the Emergency wards namely the labour ward and the Casualty unit. Students are also made to join doctors at the operating theatre where they are allowed to observe surgical cases and in some cases allowed to act as second assistants in some surgeries. All students are encouraged to be part of grand ward rounds which is held once a week. Subsequently, students are made to join medical officers on their daily ward rounds after which they go to a ward assigned to them.

A student assigned to a ward is expected to review as many cases as he or she can and to discuss his or her clinical findings with the medical doctor in charge of the ward. Please note that, students are not permitted to prescribe treatments for patients without authorization.

At the emergency unit, medical students in their terminal years of training are encouraged to attend to new cases under strict supervision of the doctor in charge. The essence of this is to encourage students to exercise their clinical prowess in arriving at diagnoses.

Once students had gained adequate knowledge in diagnosis and treatment of common illnesses they  will then be sent to the rural community clinic, where their main clinic duties involves seeing patients with a variety of illnesses from every specialty ranging from General Medicine to Psychiatry. They will also be involved in antenatal care and child health outreach services specifically the vaccination and weighing programs. The level of responsibility that will be given to students at the clinic will at times be very overwhelming especially at their junior level, they will however have to respect their limitations and refer patients to the hospital outpatient clinic where they would be seen by a doctor. At the Health centres and CHPS compounds, students under the supervision of the medical assistants in-charge are encouraged to take part in the general care offered to patients visiting such facilities