Health care practitioners from Malawi get specialised training |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Aug 09 2011 |
Released: 3 August 2011
Four medical practitioners from Malawi have received specialised training in providing care for serious burn patients, thanks to a public private partnership between the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Johnson & Johnson, and a university in the United States of America.
The four, including clinical officers and senior nurses, were trained during July at the Johnson & Johnson Burn Centre Centre at the hospital as part of a collaborative programme between J&J and the University of North Carolina (UNC), USA.
Two delegates, nurse Ester Manson and clinical officer William Kalua, recently completed their two-week training session, observing and working alongside experienced nurses, doctors and South African medical students. They followed another two Malawians – clinical officer Stephen Mjuweni and registered nurse Tayamika Phiri – who did their training at CHBH in early July.
All four are from the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, which recently opened a burn unit to take care of Malawi’s need for a specialised treatment for burn victims. The hospital serves a population of 4 million people and is the only tertiary hospital in the central region of Malawi.
The partnership grew out of an initiative between the Department of Surgery in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the Ministry of Health and Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe.
The Malawi Surgical Initiative began in 2008 and involves UNC physicians spending time at Malawi’s Kamuzu Hospital, operating on patients and teaching complex surgical techniques to local health care practitioners on the one hand, and senior surgical residents from Malawi being trained in the USA.
A third aspect of the initiative is for intensive short-term rotations of Malawian surgical residents, physicians’ assistants and nurses through the J&J Burn Treatment Centre at CHBH.
“Participating in the hands-on care of children being treated at the leading burn treatment centre in Africa gives these Malawian-born health professionals unparalleled experience and training that will be multiplied many times when they return to continue their studies and practice in Malawi. The experience is particularly important for nurses and physician assistants who provide the vast majority of primary care in Malawi, particularly in rural areas,” according to Roger Crawford, Executive Director, Worldwide Government Affairs and Policy for Johnson & Johnson.
For Ester, a nurse, this has been an enriching experience. In her first week at the paediatric ward she saw five patients with various degrees of burns. She worked her shift, gently tending to her young patients, dressing their wounds and ensuring they are comfortable.
Ester admits that this is not an easy job, and one for which a passion is needed: “You have to want to work with burn victims. The conditions are very different from a general ward.”
Whilst working in her ward in Malawi, Ester was approached by a visiting professor who asked if she wanted to work in the new burn unit in Kamuzu Central Hospital. She accepted without hesitation and packed her bags for South Africa.
In this offer, Ester saw an opportunity to widen her field of expertise and expand her knowledge. This was an opportunity to learn how colleagues in other countries handle this specialised field.
William is a Clinical Officer in Malawi. Clinical Officers are trained to perform sixty to eighty percent of doctors’ duties in most African states where there is a shortage of doctors. Their training is shorter so they can get to work quickly in order to take care of the needs of their people. They are qualified to diagnose and treat illnesses and also perform some surgeries.
William feels they have learnt a great deal from this experience. Working in a well equipped facility, with modern technology and advanced medicine makes the job a lot easier. This exposure has deepened their insights into this field. They have also discovered that there are medicines used here that are not available in their country.
Both acknowledge that initiatives like this one are necessary in sharing and transferring skills between peers.
“We are grateful to Johnson & Johnson for offering this opportunity to us. It has been an exciting experience learning and engaging with our South African colleagues on common issues in our field,” said William.
From this trip, they have compiled a list of drugs which they will give to the hospital pharmacist back home. They hope that, together with their newly acquired skills and the medicine for which they are lobbying, they can make a marked difference in the treatment of the traumatised patients in Malawi.
When the Johnson & Johnson Burn Treatment Centre opened 21 years ago, it could accommodate up to 16 patients in the ward and had four fully equipped ICU rooms, operating theatre facilities and physiotherapy rooms. A few years later a paediatric ward was added with input from the nurses who worked in the unit. Today hundreds of patients receive specialised care per year thanks in this modern, well-equipped centre.
Last changed: Aug 09 2011 at 7:42 PM
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