Volunteer Reflection: Dr. Elissa Zirinsky, Pediatrician
Dr. Zirinsky doing the rounds with FAME doctors and nurses in the morning.
Dr. Zirinsky leading one of the morning training sessions.
And another one! FAME never stops learning with Dr. Zirinsky around!
With Dr. Adam on the morning rounds.
There is a feeling I have these days as I walk around campus that I am in the right place at the right time. I first met Dr. Frank and Susan over 15 years ago. At that time, I was a recent college graduate volunteering at the Rift Valley Children’s Village, an organization closely associated with FAME. The FAME team ran mobile clinics from the Children’s Village once or twice a month, and I helped in any way I could: taking vital signs; transcribing medical histories; or organizing the hundreds of patients waiting to be seen every weekend. I have fond memories of meals together as a team after long clinic days and many evening conversations about life and medicine with Dr. Mshana (one of FAME’s first doctors) as we watched children play soccer. Most of all, I remember being moved by the many ways the team treated and comforted a whole community of people. These first experiences with FAME nudged me towards medicine.
Dr. Zirinsky and FAME’s Nurse Siana Nkya in 2007 at one of FAME’s mobile clinics.
By the end of that year, I decided to go back to school for my pre-medical requirements. It dawned on me recently that I grew into a doctor as FAME grew from mobile clinics into a hospital. I would come back to FAME and the Children’s Village for short visits whenever possible but always hoped I’d be able to return for longer. I eventually completed my training in pediatrics and infectious diseases just as FAME was finalizing their strategic plan to expand pediatric care and services. I joined the team as a pediatrician in September. Together with two pediatric-focused physicians, Drs. Ken and Joselina, we are turning our attention towards the care of premature infants, preventative care for well infants and children, and protocols and close follow-up for our sickest inpatient children.
Dr. Zirinsky and FAME Social Worker, Kitashu Nganana speak to a patient.
There’s a real joy in returning to a place you know and love and being able to care for the children of that community. Almost every day I am surprised by a familiar face waiting on the benches outside the clinic - a young adult I taught in kindergarten 15 years ago, a friend’s mother bringing one of her grandchildren for vaccines, the child of my favorite shop owner. I’m also lucky to work alongside old friends. I’m greeted every morning by Mary, the head receptionist and one of FAME’s first employees, who feels like family. I love sharing and discussing patients with FAME’s first nurses, Safi and Siana, whom I’ve known since mobile clinic days. I look forward to lunch everyday with close friends from the Children’s Village now working at FAME.
There is a strong spirit of curiosity, collaboration, and generosity that permeates through all departments here. Conversations about complicated patients involve a multidisciplinary team of people with diverse skills and expertises. There is a universal willingness to go to great lengths to care for patients and their families. Though the work is challenging and the patients are often quite sick, I think this spirit keeps everyone moving forward. As I write this from the ward after morning rounds, I’m watching the charge nurse on the phone with someone in town, conspiring to find a pair of shoes for a child admitted with severe malnutrition who needs to start walking around but has no shoes. I have no doubt the shoes will be here within the hour and the child will be shuffling around the ward in no time.