Ghana to Begin RT Training Program

June 10, 2014

Weber State University (WSU) faculty and students got some great news when they returned from their latest trip to Ghana to bring much needed medical education and services to health care professionals in the country.

Next summer, Ghana will begin training respiratory therapists of its own.

“I received word from the University of Ghana that they have officially approved a baccalaureate degree in respiratory therapy that will begin in August 2015,” says AARC member Lisa Trujillo, DHS, RRT, assistant professor and director of clinical education at WSU. “This has been about three years in the making and will be the first respiratory therapy program in the country.”

Dr. Trujillo and her program director at WSU, AARC member Paul Eberle, PhD, RRT, first teamed up with educational officials in Ghana during another of their medical missions to the country in 2012. “Once the University of Ghana School of Allied Health Sciences and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital expressed an interest in developing an RT program, we worked closely with them to assist in creating a comprehensive curriculum proposal,” says Dr. Trujillo.

The curriculum proposal that was approved to begin in August of next year is heavily based on the current WSU respiratory therapy curriculum and Dr. Trujillo says she and her colleagues will continue to assist in the development and delivery of the program through mentoring and training opportunities, both in Ghana and at WSU. 

Check out our slide show for an inside look at Weber State’s most recent trip to Ghana, which not only focused on the new RT program, but also delivered NPR training to 800+ health professionals, provided community health education and free clinics for approximately 700 adults and 300 children, offered CPAP and mechanical ventilation training for physicians, and distributed supplies from a 40 foot shipping container collected over the past two years from donors in the U.S.