Karanda Mission Hospital

Backgrond

Karanda Mission Hospital was established in 1961 to meet the needs of mission stations in the Zambezi River valley which were established as churches and then, as the abundant healthcare challenges were seen, small dispensaries/clinics were developed along with churches and finally schools. To help the clinics, the hospital was built. Karanda is in a remote area of Northern Zimbabwe nearest to Mount Darwin. Its location is approximately 124 miles from Harare, the Capital of Zimbabwe.

The mission complex has a 3-year nurse training school for around 55 students, a 1-year midwifery program, and a primary school offering grades 1-7 for children of the hospital staff. The hospital also offers a Home Based care program that ministers to the needs of widows, orphans and those with HIV. It works with the Evangelical church, a non-denominational church, very similar in doctrine to the Evangelical Free Church in the United States. Karanda has had 5 chaplains who help to meet the spiritual needs of the patients through daily ward devotions, evangelization, and counselling for grief when a patient dies or for an end of life issues for those with terminal diseases. Karanda takes the evangelistic mission very seriously.

The hospital is licensed for 150 beds and on an average workday performs between 15-30 surgeries and sees 200-300 outpatients. The facility is known for the large number of surgical cases it handles as well as treating HIV/AIDS, TB, obstetrics, and hydrocephalus. Karanda performs over 4,000 surgical cases annually and has two full-time surgeons (a General surgeon and an OBGYN), and a little help from some visitors. In addition to the two surgeons, Karanda also has a Physician’s assistant and a General practitioner. During parts of the year, Karanda also has 2 interns from the University of Zimbabwe and medical volunteers from overseas. The patient population is drawn from the entire country as people seek affordable, reliable, compassionate healthcare.

The Hospital

Karanda Mission Hospital serves as a tool to show the love of Christ in very practical ways. As we meet the often desperate health care needs of people we bring hope into people’s lives and have the opportunity to share with them the hope they can have in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:10 says we have been chosen by God for good works. At Karanda we have a wonderful opportunity to live out this command of Christ.With 10-20 surgeries and 200-300 outpatients daily Karanda has the opportunity to share the love of Christ to over 75,000 individuals annually through the hospital ministry.

The hospital is licensed for 150 beds and on an average workday performs between 15-30 surgeries and sees 200-300 outpatients. The facility is known for a large number of surgical cases it handles as well as treating HIV/AIDS, TB, obstetrics, and hydrocephalus. Karanda performs over 4,000 surgical cases annually and has two full-time surgeons (a General surgeon and an OBGYN), and a little help from some visitors. In addition to the two surgeons, Karanda also has a Physician’s assistant and a General practitioner. During parts of the year, Karanda also has 2 interns from the University of Zimbabwe and medical volunteers from overseas. The patient population is drawn from the entire country as people seek affordable, reliable, compassionate healthcare.

School of Nursing

The school of nursing opened its doors in 1962 with the purpose of helping to meet staffing needs of the remotely located Karanda Hospital. It is our intent to train quality nurses who are able to minister effectively within the local church no matter where they work. Over the years, the school of nursing has adapted to provide nursing education that best meets the needs of the country under the directives of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare. Since 2001 we have been training Registered General Nurses in a three-year diploma program. Our student body numbers 44 with three levels of training at any given time. We also have a one year State Certified Midwifery School which opened in 2005. We have 10 students each year in the program which is a post-basic course for Registered General Nurses with at least 2 years of working experience. Our school operates within the parameters of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe. The school of nursing continues to meet a critical need for quality nurses within the country. The HIV/AIDS pandemic requires nurses prepared to meet the challenge of providing holistic health care that is promotive, preventive, curative and supportive in nature. The country is still very supportive of the Karanda School of Nursing. We are still able to openly teach God’s Word to our students in training. Our students have 3 hours of instruction in Bible every week they are in class. The students spend 40 weeks in class time and the rest of their time working at the hospital getting practical experience.

Included in the 3-year general nurses' course is an 18 week component of community health nursing experience. The students spend 12 weeks of that time working with our community program and then 6 weeks in the urban community environment in our Provencial capital. Community nursing is a big part of what is done in nursing in Zimbabwe. If we had more staff in the school of nursing this is a component that could use further supervision and development.

The school of nursing invites nurse educators from overseas to come and assist in the teaching of the student nurses for a few weeks, months or longer. This is possible because English is the official language in Zimbabwe. Other nurses are also encouraged to come and help in the clinical supervision of students on the wards. We need nurses who can mentor our students in the clinical area. Nurses could even come during the North American summer as our students are in school year round. All such nurses would be required to be registered by the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe. What an opportunity to build into the lives of African nurses!

We would also welcome a partnership with a Christian School of Nursing in the US in which nurse educators could come and help teach in our school and/or our nurse educators could work at their school during their home assignments. We currently have a school staff of 2 missionary nurses, 1 national nurse educator and 3 national clinical instructors.