A Scottish elective project experience for Malawian dental students Esther and Chifundo – Week 2

For those readers who missed the blog post about Week 1, you can see it here.

Day 9 – Monday 2nd September

To describe the first day of Week 2 as ‘rainy’ would be a massive understatment. We were scheduled to arrive at Dundee Dental School by 10.45am and the drive from Glasgow was more like a boat trip than a car journey. Nevertheless, we arrived on time and were met by Frances Zaccarini, the Dean’s PA, who showed us up to the Campus View meeting room on the seventh floor.

I had been keen to include this visit to Dundee for a number of reasons. My friend and colleague Professor Peter Mossey, Professor of Craniofacial Development & Associate Dean for Internationalisation at the University of Dundee Dental School, is heavily engaged in global health activities and is very supportive of the MalDent Project. He was instrumental in our project being used as an exemplar in the FDI document ‘Vision 2023: Delivering Optimal Oral Health For All’, and he also attended the recent workshop in Nottingham. Another reason for a visit was the focus on Malawi by the Principal & Vice Chancellor of the University of Dundee, Professor Iain Gillespie. As part of his strategic intent, Professor Gillespie has established, in collaboration with the Vice Chancellors of all six of Malawi’s public universities, The Blantyre Declaration. Through this initiative, there are several Malawian PhD students studying at Dundee University, four of whom I had met previously, either on visits to Dundee or at the recent SMP event with the First Minister. The four students are Remus Chunda, a Malawian trained dental therapist, who has just submitted his PhD thesis on health coaching, Esther Mabedi and Colleen Mbughi who are pursuing PhD studies in the Department of Geography & Environmental Science, School of Humanities, Social Sciences & Law, and Gervasio Nyaka from Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, who is studying aspects of inter-professional training for his PhD in medical education. We were also joined by Dr Alistair Geddes, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, who has major research interests in Malawi, and works in partnership on some of these with Peter and with Dr Neil Merrylees, a Senior Lecturer in General Medical Practice.

We spent the morning session discussing a wide range of subjects linked to the variety of research projects underway, as well as aspects of oral health in Malawi. It provided an excellent opportunity for Esther and Chifundo to meet some of their fellow citizens and to recognise the possibilities for postgraduate study in the UK.

Peter had arranged a very tasty lunch for us and conversation continued as we ate:

After lunch, Colleen, Remus and Gervasio took Esther and Chifundo for a walk around the university campus and down to the V&A Dundee Museum. Despite the intermittent rain, they had a good time together:

We had arranged to meet Dr Doug Stirling who leads the central guidance development team of the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP), part of NHS Education for Scotland and based in Dundee. Doug joined SDCEP when we first established it 20 years ago as an initiative of the Scottish Government National Dental Advisory Committee, and I have known him since then, working closely with him, Professor Jan Clarkson (Director of SDCEP) and their outstanding team on multiple projects, including during the COVID pandemic. We recommend the SDCEP materials to the staff and students at KUHeS, for whom they provide an excellent, free online resource of up to date, evidence-based clinical guidance. Doug explained SDCEP’s working methods:

The full portfolio of published guidance documents is now extensive and impressive:

It had been a very successful and enjoyable visit to Dundee thanks to the interest and hospitality of our hosts. Unfortunately, the weather had only slightly improved for the drive back to Glasgow, so the beautiful scenery was still largely obscured, but our journey home was otherwise uneventful.

Day 10 – Tuesday 3rd September

As I indicated at the beginning of the previous blog post, the visit by Esther and Chifundo was made possible by generous funding from the HOPE Foundation of the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow. Much of Day 10 was spent at the RCPSG, visiting the beautiful College building and meeting key officers from the College.

Our first meeting, at 10.00am, was in The Glasgow Room with Mrs Alison Lannigan, the Chair of the HOPE Foundation. Alison is a consultant surgeon and we enjoyed a fascinating discussion covering different aspects of the healthcare environments in Malawi and the UK. Following our discussion, Alison had to leave to attend a surgical examination meeting in Newcastle, but we were able to take a photograph before she set out on the drive south.

The RCPSG is housed in a very historic and beautiful building. Esther and Chifundo were treated to a detailed tour by Claire McDade who is the Heritage Lead for the College. They returned to the Glasgow Room following the tour, for a photo with their expert guide:

Claire then led us to The President’s Office, where we were met and greeted by Mr Mike McKirdy, President of the RCPSG. When the MalDent Project first started in 2017, Professor David Galloway was President of the RCPSG and Mike was Chair of the College’s Global Health Group. Both David and Mike were very supportive of our fledgling work on oral health improvement in Malawi and we have been very grateful for Mike’s strong, continuing support during his presidency.

Esther and Chifundo had a very enjoyable discussion with the President, who was eager to learn about their course and their aspirations for the future.

Before we left for lunch, Mike took Esther and Chifundo across to his desk to show them the portraits on the wall of Sir William Macewen and Lord Lister, where he recounted a brief summary of the contributions made by both men to medicine and surgery:

As we walked to The Lister Room for lunch, we passed through some of the exhibits for a new exhibition at the RCPSG called ‘William Macewen: At the Cutting Edge’. The exhibition, which opens officially on 11th September, is taking place as the College celebrates its 425th anniversary:

It was interesting that during discussions the day before in Dundee, as well as with Alison Lannigan earlier in the day, we had been talking about the importance of team working amongst different cadres of healthcare professionals. This quote, included in the Sir William Macewen exhibition, seemed especially apt:

For anyone interested in learning more about Sir William Macewen, you may like to look at a RCPSG Heritage blog post available here.

We enjoyed a beautiful lunch, hosted by the President and attended by Linda Irvine, the Deputy CEO of the College who, with her team, had done so much to help us with the arrangements for the visit to Scotland by Esther and Chifundo. After lunch, Linda presented Esther and Chifundo with gifts from the College and then we headed outside for some photos.

The day finished with some discussion and further photos with the College Communications Team. This included a visit to the College Library where Esther and Chifundo were amused to see my name in the GDC Dental Register for 1980:

Finally, we met Kat Hannah, Director of Communications & Marketing, and were able to take a photo with the HOPE Foundation sign as a very appropriate backdrop.

Many thanks are due to the President, Mr Mike McKirdy, and all of the team at the RCPSG for making this such a day to remember.

Day 11 – Wednesday 4th September

On arrival at the Dental School on the morning of Day 11, Esther and Chifundo met Professor Will Mclean, Professor of Endodontology, who is the current President of the International Federation of Endodontic Associations (IFEA) and Chair of the 14th IFEA World Endodontic Congress in Glasgow from 11th-14th September. You will hear more of this in our future post from Week 3, as Esther and Chifundo will attend two days of that congress.

Esther and Chifundo spent the morning session on a new patient endodontics consultant clinic with Dr Abisola Asuni. This was their second session with Dr Asuni, who they knew well from the Flying Faculty teaching in February this year.

In the afternoon, Esther and Chifundo enjoyed a dental public health and Childsmile seminar with Professor Lorna Macpherson, who they had met previously in Malawi, and Mr Peter King, the Childsmile Programme Manager. The principles of the highly successful Scottish Childsmile programme will be followed by the Task Force being set up in Malawi to develop a National Child Oral Health Improvement Programme, so it is very important that the dentists who will be qualifying in Malawi are familiar with those principles.

In the evening, Esther and Chifundo met another great friend of the MalDent Project, Dr Lewis Olsson. Lewis, a Glasgow dental graduate, visited Malawi for one of the elective projects he undertook during his subsequent medical training. He worked with the Head of the BDS programme at KUHeS, Dr James Mchenga, both assisting during operations but also delivering some teaching, including to Esther and Chifundo. Lewis generously treated us all to dinner at Nando’s:

Day 12 – Thursday 5th September

One of the highlights of the BDS degree course at the University of Glasgow is the adult outreach programme for Final Year students. In this model, the students spend 50% of their last year in community dental facilities, delivering dental care under supervision. It represents a very valuable stepping stone between undergraduate teaching in the Dental School and Vocational Training after graduation. During this outreach training, students rapidly increase their clinical experience and confidence. The largest of these outreach centres for the Glasgow BDS programme is in Dumfries, which now houses 12 dental students at any one time. The centre was highlighted in a recent BBC News item which you can read here.

We arrived at 10.45am and were greeted by Susan Morrison who is the Senior Dental Nurse at the Centre. Esther and Chifundo signed confidentiality agreements, changed into their scrubs and each then departed to separate wings of the building. Drs Alun Scott, Hans Brown and Stavros Karampatos were the tutors on duty and between them they looked after Esther and Chifundo as they observed the students undertaking treatment in the clinical areas.

At lunchtime we visited the café in a nearby hospital building where Esther and Chifundo had a chance to relax and chat with some of the Glasgow students who had been allocated to Dumfries Dental Centre that week.

The visit to Dumfries allowed Esther and Chifundo to see another aspect of the BDS degree programme in Glasgow. The concept of outreach teaching is one that in due course would be very applicable in Malawi as the BDS programme there matures. Many thanks are due to all involved in organising and delivering the visit, including Dr James Donn who is the Course Lead for BDS 5 at Glasgow.

As we neared Glasgow on our drive back, I diverted to Clarkston on the south side of the city where we enjoyed dinner in ‘The White Cart’ before heading home.

Day 13 – Friday 6th September

On the Friday morning I had to attend a Scotland Malawi Partnership meeting in Edinburgh. Esther and Chifundo made their own way into the Dental School where they were looked after for the morning by Mr Stephen Dunn, one of the Dental Technology Lecturers.

Esther and Chifundo joined a small group of students from Malaysia and Brunei who would be joining BDS3 as part of the partnership arrangements Glasgow Dental School has with the IMU University in Kuala Lumpur and the Universiti Brunei Darussalam. The first part of the morning was spent revising the principles of partial denture design:

Later, Esther and Chifundo were introduced to the growing trend for computer aided design of partial dentures:

This photo of Stephen with Esther and Chifundo includes reference to traditional dental technology – shelves full of dental articulators – and the move to digital design and workflow, visible on the computer screen behind Chifundo:

Esther and Chifundo were also able to test out scanners on dental models …

… and experience the new Zirkonzahn digital workflow equipment received recently by the department:

On my return from Edinburgh I met Esther and Chifundo at their apartment and we walked through Kelvingrove Park to the University of Glasgow campus at Gilmorehill. The sun was out so we took the opportunity for some photos at the South Front …

… in the quadrangles …

… and in the cloisters:

At 3.00pm we had arranged to meet Professor Heather Cubie, who is the Chair of the Scotland Malawi Partnership. Heather will be chairing a Scotland Malawi Partnership Oral Health Forum on Tuesday 10th September, in which Esther and Chifundo will both participate, so it was an excellent opportunity for everyone to meet. Heather treated us to drinks and cake while we enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion.

After our meeting with Heather we walked back across Kelvingrove Park and dropped in to ‘The Maverick’, as we had done on the previous Friday, for an end of working week drink.

Another week gone – time was flying!

Day 14 – Saturday 7th September

The first day of the weekend was bright and sunny as we headed to Blantyre (Scotland!) to visit the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum (DLBM). Claire McDade, Heritage Lead at the RCPSG, had kindly put me in touch with Sandra Lowson at the DLMB and luckily Sandra was on duty that weekend.

One of the first things that visitors see on arrival is a large bronze statue depicting the attack on David Livingstone by a lion:

For those interested to learn more about the incident, you can read it here:

The DLMB is a large white building with an adjacent shop and café:

After an initial chat with Sandra at the Reception, we headed up to the top floor to begin the tour. The exhibits included artefacts relating to David Livingstone’s medical training. Esther and Chifundo were already aware of the links between David Livingstone and the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow following their meeting earlier in the week with Mr Mike McKirdy, President of the College.

After completing our visit to Floor 3 we broke for lunch in the café and then returned to finish our tour. The beautiful Pilkington Jackson Tableaux on Level 2 illustrated various stages in David Livingstone’s life:

Here are two examples, one entitled ‘Truth” …

… and the other entitled ‘Endurance’:

Towards the end of the exhibition there is a very ornate metal sculpture depicting a tree …

… close to this wooden sculpture:

Just before leaving the exhibition, Esther and Chifundo left hand-written notes from Malawi:

Finally we caught up again with Sandra for a photo before leaving the Museum.

The afternoon was spent at Braehead Shopping Centre, which went down especially well with Esther:

In the evening, it had been arranged previously that Esther and Chifundo would have dinner with Rachel and Maria, the daughters of my good friends Frank and Christine Bonner. Rachel and Maria are both students at the University of Glasgow. Frank is the Dental School Manager who has been very helpful in facilitating the elective visit by Esther and Chifundo. In addition, Rosie Cullen, a niece of Frank and Christine, was able to attend. Rosie is a Glasgow dental graduate who recently completed her Vocational Training and is now an Associate in a general dental practice in Glasgow. Whilst they had dinner together, Frank, Christine and I enjoyed a curry elsewhere, joining the team for coffee to round off the evening:

It had been a varied and very enjoyable day – history, culture, shopping, good food and time spent with friends.

Day 15 – Sunday 8th September

It had been a hectic two weeks and on Day 15 we all took a rest, preparing for the excitement of Week 3!