Southern Ethiopia - Gwent Health Link

In its 7th year since formal establishment of the link between Nevill Hall Hospital and Dilla College of Health sciences, with support from the tropical health education Trust (THET), the Southern Ethiopia Gwent health link has seen steady expansion of support and activities both in Gwent as well as in Ethiopia.I have tried to list most of the activities undertaken by various link members on both sides in the last year.

Training programmes

Training of frontline health workers has always been one of the main priorities of our link. In 2006 the link has seen extension of this to include the midwives and also Training of the trainers.

Skills workshop for the Midwives and other nurses involved in care of the pregnant mothers

In March 2006, Carole Garrick, Head of midwifery in Gwent travelled to Hwassa and organised a pilot programme for skills training of midwives working in the local hospital and health centres. 12 people attended and this gave us also opportunity to carry out needs assessment for skills training gap amongst this group. Following the success of this programme our link organised in October 2006 a skills workshop for all the midwives and other nurses involved in the care of the pregnant mothers in teaching health centres and hospitals in SNNPR region. This workshop was extremely successful. 35 participants attended for hands on skills course in emergency obstetrics. Apart from three members from our link, three other members from the Hwassa College joined as faculty. It is expected of each of the participants to teach these skills to at least two of their colleagues at work. Majority of funding for this programme has been supported by the Small grants scheme from British Embassy in Addis.

Training of the Trainers

Following on from the pilot training of the trainers programme organised by our link in 2005 in Hwassa, we organised another ‘Training of the trainers’ programme in October 2006. We invited all the specialists working in the hospitals in SNNPR region. We have always emphasized that the role of well trained HOs are vital in the health care delivery in Ethiopia. These HOs will have to be trained in a variety of centres such as health science colleges, district hospitals. The specialist doctors in these hospitals already have significant clinical commitment which makes any academic contribution from them very difficult. Moreover, they lack teaching experience as well as the basic resources necessary to teach. The most important objective of this workshop was to recognise the role of the Trainers in the Accelerated Health Officers Training Programme and make then feel valued in their role as trainers. The Workshop was organized by our link in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and the Regional Health Bureau of SNNPR and Hwassa University. It was conducted at Hwassa Referral Hospital. Members of the link, specialists from Germany with support from the German Association of Tropical Surgery (DTC), WHO and other Ethiopian Universities participated as faculty members. In this workshop the participants learned how to teach effectively with limited time and resources. The faculty members included experienced educationalists as well as clinicians with several years of teaching experience and shared practical pointers on teaching and transfer of clinical skills. The workshop was very successful and the Regional health department highly appreciated this effort. During this workshop our link also started for the first time an e-learning programme for the participants and the local faculty members.

CME for the health officers

Our link has continued to support skills training of the final year HO students and CME for the graduate health officers in SNNPR region. Through donation of teaching equipment, training mannequins and instruments, the link has now helped to set up a well equipped skills lab in Hwassa College for skills training in surgery, resuscitation, obstetrics and paediatrics. Participants at the last training the trainers programme are themselves running two CME skills workshop for the HOs in SNNPR at Hwassa College skills lab starting in January 2007.

Laboratory skills training

In 2006, our link organised a skills training programme for the final year medical laboratory science students in Hwassa College. Due to unavoidable circumstances and illnesses at the last moment, unfortunately only David Williams could travel. Already it has been planned for a larger group with expertise in microbiology, haematology, blood banking and biochemistry to travel to Hwassa early in 2007. During this visit it is also expected that a senior infection control nurse will also visit. Together with the microbiology team she will help to set up protocols in study of infection control in Hwassa hospital as well as in the teaching health centres.

Leadership skills

In October 2006, our link organised a pilot programme of Leadership skills for the key staff including departmental heads in the new Hwassa University. This programme was well received and considered timely as many of the key persons in responsible roles in the University are relatively new and have very little management and leadership experience or training. Need for similar programmes for larger groups of key staff in Hwassa University are currently being assessed.