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Our volunteers > Oliver's story

Oliver Jefferis volunteered in Malawi through a joint scheme between the Royal College of Paediatrics and VSO. The programme is seen as professional development for junior doctors and provides recognition for the volunteer job when they come back to the UK. Here Dr Jefferis talks about his experience in Malawi.

Motivation to volunteer
I’m a doctor trained in paediatrics and was working in Bristol for a few years before volunteering in Malawi with VSO. One of my big motivations in applying to VSO was that there are 10 million children in the world die each year under five and many of those live in poor countries.

I really wanted to be a part of being able to help some of those children and be involved in training some of those people who are going to be involved in helping those children. When I was thinking about applying my own skill development wasn’t really my primary motivation but it certainly is a fantastic positive impact and by-product of going to work.

The volunteer experience
I was working and teaching at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, which is the only teaching hospital in the country. There were about 15 doctors in the paediatric department involved in clinical work and teaching and one or two nurses for every 100-150 patients.

The lack of human resources was the biggest challenge. When I was in situations where I was faced with a very sick child, in the UK I would call for help and suddenly a team of 20 people would appear within a few moments but that didn’t happen in Malawi. But one of the big motivations for me was the fact that although we saw many sick children and many children dying there were many children who got better and were transformed back into normal bubbly children.

Training future doctors
I was involved in organising and running the fifth year medical students’ teaching. While I there we went from having 24 students in a year to 44, so there are big improvements. The training side of my role was challenging because I was in situations doing things that I didn’t have that much experience of doing in the UK. Being in charge of paediatric teaching is something I don’t expect I shall be doing in the UK for some years to come.

I was in Malawi for just over a year, and there are already people that I am teaching working as doctors. There are another 40 students who I’ve been involved in teaching who are going to be doctors within six months, so even though I’ve left the country the impact of the work that I’ve been doing is going to continue.

Developing clinical skills
If someone said to me that my time out in Malawi had been a waste of time I’d say to them ‘that’s complete rubbish’. There are so many of my existing skills that were called upon and developed whilst in Malawi and I think my experience will contribute enormously to my work in the future in the UK. I’ve been involved in things that I would certainly not have done in the UK and I’ve been involved in all the sorts of things that from a medical point of view here can boost my CV. I’ve been involved in an enormous amount of teaching, I’ve been involved in research, I’ve had a huge amount of clinical exposure which someone who just stayed in this country would never hope to achieve.

Increased morale
I think there is a lot of dissatisfaction in the UK with the NHS and in people in general working in the UK. Having worked somewhere like Malawi you appreciate so much more the resources that are available in this country, and will make you want to use them efficiently with the patients here.

I’d say to a doctor who’s considering applying to ‘go for it’. You may be worried that it has a negative impact on your career but it won’t. If you are involved in some of the things that I was that’s only going to have a positive impact on your career in the future.