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Who would have thought that a computer network engineer, a wound care nurse practitioner, an infectious disease physician, a cardiac anesthesiologist, and a obstetrician/gynecologist could be such a great combination to bring to a mission hospital?!

Last year I invited (or challenged) these friends to come with me to Mbingo Baptist Hospital to experience Africa from a new vantage point and to give freely of their time and talents to the work at the hospital.  Their respective skills were all very important at the hospital.

We were very grateful to have a cardiac anesthesiologist here to teach the nurse anesthetists how to care for their patients.  In this particular case, his involvement and expertise were especially appreciated by everyone.

Each team member not only utilized their skills and knowledge, but also took the time to teach others.  Here the internal medicine residents are listening to our infectious disease physician giving a lecture; however, she also attended their conferences and attended patient ward rounds to discuss the infections that they saw.

Mbingo Baptist Hospital is also the referral center for the entire country of Cameroon for care of chronic wounds, leprosy wound care, and rehabilitation from amputations.  The wound care department is extremely busy, and our wound care nurse practitioner helped to educate on new techniques, and also helped to relieve the workload.

The hospital is also nearly ready to open a new building which will hold the entire outpatient department.  It is also nearly ready to implement a computerized medical record system.  With these two tasks on their agenda, the timing of bringing a computer network expert was incredibly helpful.  Fortunately, thanks to the Internet, he will be able to continue to assist remotely as the hospital moves forward.

Personally it has been great to have these friends with me here on this trip.  Not only have they been great to have here from a professional standpoint, they have been a lot of fun as we have explored the mountains around the hospital and have spent many hours together at meals and in the evenings.

[Their names have been purposefully omitted out of a security concern.]