Week 8: If Only You Could Hear What I Have TO Say

Location: Kampala, Uganda, some in Gaba Outreach Program

Our research project finally had a chance to kick off these last couple of weeks. I have had the great opportunity to conduct questionnaires and interviews with HIV/AIDS patients, analyzing the quality of healthcare at Nsambya Home Care and their important OutReach Program out in Ggaba. This has not only allowed me a chance to meet wonderful people, but provided me with valuable data about Nsambya Home Care.

Nsambya HomeCare was initially created to help PLWA patients afford their medications by subsidization and provide needed counseling to allow patients to cope with the situation. Not only do they provide treatment and counseling for 1000 shillings (50 cents), but they also make sure that patients leave the facility satisfied knowing what they have to deal with. Nsambya HomeCare really is a blessing. They have done so much to provide patients with the care they need to deal with HIV/AIDS, and they even opened an outreach program in Gaba for patients out in that region to have closer access to medication and treatment. Every health worker that I have met has been very welcoming and social, allowing me to research fluidly and quickly. However, as well as this HomeCare has provided treatment, there are nevertheless problems that they need to deal with.

The idea of a problem is related to your point of view on the situation. If you have never experienced a better way of life, you have no idea there is something better out there, so you may have no problem with an experience. However, if a patient is more educated and has gone through countless situations and understand the scenario better, he/she might have more to say in terms of improvement of the quality of care of a situation. Thus, a problem is very relative to what you know and what you have experienced. That was something I clearly saw between the patients at Gaba and Nsambya HomeCare. Gaba patients, who tended to be more rural, have very little problems with the quality of healthcare. The wait time is long, the health workers treat them fine, and they have very little complaints. However, patients at Nsambya HomeCare, though very gracious of the treatment and medication provided, have complaints in which they feel would make the experience more pleasant. For example, if they could provide free water, money for food due to the long wait time, and complaint boxes, they would be able to improve on the quality of healthcare and the patients would be happer with their experiences.

What I also realized is some information that people are willing to share in front of someone other than a health worker or community volunteer. It is in the subconscious to think that the health worker and community volunteers would be biased towards the quality of healthcare at the facility. They would be more likely to say the treatment as positive and the commitment of the health workers to be strong, but the patients would be much more willing to explain their problems to a third party. Interviews and questionnaires provide patients a chance to bring their complaint boxes to the table and share what they have to say, providing a freedom of speech to someone who is willing to listen.

This learning experience of qualitative research has more than helped me understand how patients act and how questions should be asked to not seem harsh and provoking. As one who has not done any previous qualitative research, Nsambya HomeCare has provided a valuable observational experience to perform a pilot study. I would very much like to thank Brian, the counselor, for being my translator and explaining the process of treatment at the Gaba OutReach Program, as well as Sister Irene, Teo, etc. for helping me out on my project. I would also like to thank Dr. Maria Musoke for letting me interview patients at Nsambya HomeCare and Head Nurse Grace for directing patients to me. This experience is more than I could have asked for in a couple of weeks in Uganda.