Clinicians at the twinned clinics in Malawi are learning how to access and use online medical journals such as Hinari.
As registered ‘band 1′ users, clinicians in our partner clinics in Malawi use Hinari and other online medical journals on a daily basis for crucial help with both case diagnosis and continuous professional development. Sites like Hinari are gradually replacing the under-resourced and outdated medical libraries in Malawi. The government clinics in townships are staffed entirely by nurses and clinical officers. There are no doctors. By providing access to the Interent, the Twinning of Scottish and Malawian Clinics Project has allowed colleagues in the developing world to communicate on an equal platform with those in resource-rich countries.
And therein lies the paradox: the so called ‘worse’ can teach the so called ‘best’ many lessons. Perhaps we should look to our colleagues in Malawi and other resource poor environments to help us re-connect with the core values of patient respect, health education, integration of public health with clinical care, and above all pride in caring for patients. Online journals and social networking sites allow us to do this.
Jon Udell in his blog posting discusses the disputed ease of access to online medical resources by some critics.
It would be interesting to hear accounts of how nursing colleagues in either Scotland or Malawi are using medical journals in their own continous professional development or as an aid to patient diagnosis.
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