Stella Ujege-Ademosu shares her secondment experience at Evelina,Health care centres and Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, London.
I am Stella Ujege-Ademosu a Nurse/Midwife working with Zankli Medical Centre Abuja-Nigeria.
I had the honour to be sent to the United Kingdom on secondment by the ARISE project for two months, from October to December 2023.
My place of secondment was in Evelina, Health care centres and Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, I also had the opportunity to attend the ASCAT conference, UK forum for Haemoglobin Disorder, online trainings on excel and Global Health Network on breastfeeding.
My objectives were to effectively nurse, manage and provide care for patients with sickle cell disease, acquiring knowledge on the latest treatments and research on sickle cell anaemia, educating patients and their families about the condition and advocating for the well -being of individuals with sickle cell disease. Moving forward, I will do my best to train and pass what I have learnt to my professional colleagues.
This experience is huge to me, I have gained a life time experience, the nurses were fantastic, they took their time to teach me about the Apheresis machine and answered all my questions.
During the clinic hours, I learnt a lot about professionalism, and was taught about antibodies, penicillin and the history of sickle cell, etc. At the health care centre, I learnt about different methods of antenatal counselling, prenatal diagnosis, inviting the spouse for a blood test if the wife is of genotype AS or a carrier to be able to make a quick decision and breaking of bad news.
My secondment colleagues were great and kind-hearted people, I enjoyed learning with them; they were supportive.
I appreciate all the ARISE team, my sending institution and other stakeholders in the United Kingdom.
This does not stop here, I will continue to work with the Arise team at home and abroad.
Thank You.
