on starting a pediatrics residency

I know you might think this sounds familiar – but it’s new 🙂 and really exciting.

We have PEDIATRIC RESIDENTS – in KIJABE!

Ima and I have dreamed of this for years, wondering when Kijabe would be able to pivot from surgical residencies to primary care. When would there be an examining College on the continent outside the universities and would we be ready when it happened?

A year ago when I received an innocuous email from the medical board to assess our readiness, I had no idea the journey we were about to begin. I checked the boxes, talked to the pediatrics team, and waited. A few months later we received a call – the medical board was coming to inspect the hospital – in 24 hours. I finalized schedules and curriculums, pulled up numbers and statistics, was so excited that one of our new pediatricians was excited about being program director.

. . . and mostly I prayed. . . that God would grant us favor and that if we were ready to train, they would see it. If we were not, that they would show us where to improve. They inspected 9 hospitals that week, 5 made the cut. And we were one of them. The only mission hospital across 5 countries. . .

In the months that followed I approached MedSend for funding and was honored that they agreed to work with Kijabe Hospital directly. . . Peninah and I planned and made schedules, worked with ECSAPACH (our certifying college) to get exams and interviews in place.

We did interviews in August, and against all odds, our first two residents started on October 1st.

Already they are pushing us, asking amazing questions, expanding how we teach and build protocols. They join the PECCCOS and the Fellows learning Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care in Kijabe. In the last 11 years, I have had the privilege of watching the care of children grow in Kijabe at every level

There are 8 pediatricians in Kijabe now – a Pediatric Neurologist, a neonatologist, 3 general pediatricians (one of whom was an intern here five years ago) and pediatric oncologist, and a new pediatric emergency and critical care doctor (who is about to graduate from FPECC). . .which is a story for another day. . .

Kijabe has been taking amazing care of kids for decades, but I feel like we have been a witness to continued light speed growth in the last two years.

Pray for AnnViola and Banice our first two pediatric residents – that they would grow in wisdom, in skill, and in the true knowledge that they are Christ’s hands and feet as they move through their training and career. . .