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Media releases > Clackmannanshire nurse heads to Malawi
On June 2 Carol Carson, from Powmill in Dollar will become the second Scottish healthcare worker to leave for Malawi as part of the Scottish Executive sponsored NHSScotland/VSO partnership.
The partnership, set up last year, will see up to twenty Scottish healthcare staff leave for Malawi over the next two years where they will work with VSO, the international development charity, to help strengthen the country’s fragile health system.
Carol, a nurse with over thirty years experience, will be leaving her current role as a diabetes nurse specialist in Dunfermline to take up her voluntary placement as a nurse trainer at St Luke’s hospital in Malosa, southern Malawi.
Carol said: “There is a severe lack of nurses in Malawi and almost 75% of nursing placements are vacant. Child and maternal health is poor, life expectancy is approximately 40 years and official AIDS figures show that 15% of the adult population is HIV positive but the real figures are probably a lot higher.
“As a nurse trainer I’m hoping to help increase the number of nurses graduating in southern Malawi. These nurses can then use their skills and knowledge to improve healthcare in the area and hopefully, in time, they can train more nurses. I will also be spending time working in clinical areas including general, obstetrics and psychiatry units as well as at community clinics in rural areas.
“It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done but I would never forgive myself for missing an opportunity like this. The scheme the Scottish Executive has provided is excellent. Staff are offered two-year secondments, our pension contributions are paid at a basic level while we’re away and we are guaranteed a job at the same grade when we return. The worst bit will be leaving my husband and family but keeping in touch is so easy now and I’ll only be 20 hours away.”
In February surgeon Eric Taylor and his wife Celia were the first volunteers to leave on the scheme. They are currently based in the Malawi capital, Lilongwe.
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