Medical Internships in Ghana

Gain work experience while learning directly from doctors in hospitals and doing health checks

Destination

Ghana

Age

16+ y/o

Minimum Stay

1 week

Start Date

Anytime

Accommodation

Homestay

What’s Included

24/7 Support

Round-the-clock support on the ground and 24/7 back up from our global teams.

Accommodation & Amenities

Clean, safe, and welcoming accommodation. A home away from home with comfortable amenities.

Activities, Training & Equipment

All programme activities and equipment, including training and workshops from experienced professionals.

Certification

Certified record of service hours, workshops, and activities for your CV.

Request Info

Starting at £1,520 for 1 weeks

Flexible 0% Interest payments

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Trip Overview

Gain real world experience

Shadow doctors and nurses in a busy hospital setting, observing their daily rounds and procedures in a variety of departments and specialisations.

Learn vital medical skills

Acquire practical knowledge and skills in areas like disease prevention, patient assessment, and basic medical procedures.

Assist communities

Participate in health outreach programmes, providing essential care to rural and disadvantaged populations without immediate healthcare access.

Learn about Ghana’s culture

Live with a host family and experience everyday life in this vibrant country. Explore bustling markets, visit historical sites, and enjoy local music.

Experience personal growth

Leap out of your comfort zone and fly around the world, challenging yourself, developing independence, and gaining valuable transformative experience.

What you need to know

Overview

This internship is ideal for anyone who wants to see medicine in practice. You’ll get first-hand experience of working in a hospital in a developing country.

You can use this internship to add work experience to your CV before applying to medical school. You can also talk about all you saw, learned, and how you overcame challenges during interviews or in application essays. It’s also a great way to explore different departments within a large hospital. This is especially useful if you’re a medical student deciding on a specialisation.

Remember that you’ll be shadowing doctors and nurses in a busy medical environment. It’s important to be proactive, ask questions, and demonstrate initiative. This will ensure that you develop a good relationship with the staff, and that you learn as much as possible during your medical placement in Ghana.

Our medical internship in Ghana runs throughout the year, and you can join at any time. We encourage you to stay longer, so you can see and learn more.

A Day in the Life

On any given day, you will work shifts alongside your supervisors. These shifts typically take the following form:

Morning: 8am – 2pm
Afternoon: 2pm – 8pm
Night: 8pm – 8am

Each shift starts with rounds as you follow the consulting doctor and learn about each patient’s case and course of treatment. Use this opportunity to ask plenty of questions.

After rounds, you’ll assist nurses with patient care. You can watch them administer medication and treatment, and help to update patient files. Nurses always appreciate help in general patient care as well such as feeding, bathing, and bed changing.

Please note that hospitals in Ghana are often busiest in the mornings. Don’t be late for the morning shift if you’d like to witness the bulk of the day’s work!

Afternoons are a great opportunity to get to know the staff and patients better.

Two days per week, you’ll join one of our community outreaches to assist with doing health checks.During the hours you aren’t working, you’ll have free time to explore Ghana’s colourful culture and natural beauty with your fellow interns.

Since you will be living with a local host family, breakfast or dinners offer great opportunities to get to know them better and fully immerse yourself in their way of life.

Aims & Impact

The main aim of this project is to help expand your medical knowledge with guidance from experienced local doctors and nurses.

It also gives you insight into the healthcare system of a developing country. Many Ghanaian government hospitals receive limited funding, which means they often lack the resources that are standard in most western hospitals.

As a developing country, Ghana also suffers from a double burden of disease. Infectious diseases are still rife, with occasional outbreaks of cholera and ongoing cases of malaria. The introduction of a more western lifestyle means that now there is also an increase of diseases like hypertension and diabetes.

Through school and community outreaches, we help educate local people about malaria prevention and the importance of early treatment. Our interns also help conduct screenings and tests to prevent further complications. We also offer basic healthcare services, as people are not always able to afford treatment for infected wounds, ringworm, or malaria.

Here are our five main goals for our medical project in Ghana:

Promote the exchange of medical knowledge
Improve access to basic healthcare
Promote awareness of non-communicable diseases, like diabetes
Improve the quality of healthcare
Reduce the number of malaria cases

Gain work experience in healthcare on an international medical internship in Ghana, while helping us achieve these long-term goals.

Activities

Working under the supervision of medical professionals, you will:

Student doctor on an internship in Ghana

Join doctors and nurses on their daily rounds at the hospital

Do practical health checks during community outreaches

Student doctor learning new skills in Ghana

Take part in health education campaigns and focus on disease prevention

Your work will be split in three main areas:

Join doctors and nurses on their daily patient rounds

You will shadow doctors and nurses on their daily rounds. They’ll teach you about Ghana’s prevalent diseases, their diagnoses, management, and treatment. You should be prepared to to encounter patients who suffer from diseases and conditions that you don’t see at home, such as Malaria and Typhoid.

During your time as a medical intern in Ghana, you’ll also spend some time in different departments of a large regional hospital. This will give you insight into various specialisations and could help you choose your own later in your studies.

Do health checks during community outreaches

In Ghana, many rural and disadvantaged areas lack access to healthcare services. Most people cannot afford to travel to clinics or pay to see a doctor. This is also the case in marginalised communities. We organise regular outreaches, where you get involved with tasks like:

Treat wounds and ringworm infections at schools
Do health checks in rural communities, focusing on measuring blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and run free malaria tests

This is important work, that gives you the chance to help others while learning and using basic medical skills.

Take part in health education campaigns

You will help us raise awareness about key healthcare issues around the country. We do this by holding talks in schools, care centres, or local communities. Typical topics will include:

Good hygiene practices
Malaria prevention
Sexual education

Sexual education is critical, as this is still considered a taboo topic in many schools. You could also focus on healthy lifestyle choices to prevent illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.

Medical Departments

During your medical internship in Ghana, you will be able to work in a number of different departments. These include:

Accident and Emergency
Paediatrics
Maternity
Pharmacy
Physiotherapy
Surgery

If you’re interested in a specific department, please feel free to contact us and we can help advise you.

Map & Location

Formerly called The Gold Coast, Ghana became an independent nation in 1957, and the first African country colonised by Europeans to achieve independence under majority rule. Still famed for gold and cocoa production, it’s a treasure trove of cultural and natural experiences.

Explore lush rainforests, cascading waterfalls, and golden beaches or get stuck in to the lively music and dance scene. With a rich mix of languages and traditions, its people are known for their warmth and hospitality.

Accra

Accra, the capital of Ghana, is a lively city on the Atlantic coast with a population of over two million. This sprawling metropolis blends modern skyscrapers with historic landmarks, artisan markets, and beautiful beaches. It has a tropical savannah climate with hot temperatures all year.

Accra is culturally rich, with traditional drumming and dance performances alongside an energetic nightlife and thriving arts scene. More than half of the population is under 24, so it’s never short of excitement!

Food & Accommodation

Immediately feel at home with a supportive and welcoming local host family. We’ve vetted each family to guarantee you get everything you need for a wonderful stay. This includes a comfortable bed, three daily meals, fresh drinking water, and daily transport to and from your placement, arranged by our team.

Your host family’s home will be clean, safe, and secure, and they will welcome you as one of their own from the moment you arrive. Absorb the local culture, enjoy their incredible home-cooked food, and build a lifelong connection during the course of your stay.

You’ll stay with other Projects Abroad participants on your travels. If you share a room, we will match you with someone of the same gender and age. Whether you go it alone or with friends, you’ll have the time of your life.

Free Time and Leisure

Volunteering in Ghana is an ideal way to explore this colourful West African country. There’s a huge variety of different activities to do while you’re there, giving you plenty of exciting ways to spend your free time.

Music is a central part of Ghanaian culture. In the bigger towns, especially Accra, you will hear some great live bands and have some memorable nights out. Evenings spent at buzzing restaurants will also give you a taste of some of the delicious local cuisine.

For a look into Ghana’s history, you can tour the slave forts of Cape Coast and visit museums. Nature lovers will relish trekking through the rainforests of Kakum National Park or Mole National Park.

We run a wide range of projects in Ghana so there’s sure to be other volunteers there during your trip. This means you can explore the country solo or connect with other volunteers and travel as a group.

Your Arrival Made Easy

When you arrive at your respective airport, a member of Projects Abroad staff will be there to meet you. You can find more detailed information on arrival airports, orientation, and visas on our Ghana Arrival Procedures page.