- Somaliland has lived through years of conflict, and even now that its people are rebuilding their country, women and children’s health continue to be affected – their death rates are higher than almost anywhere else in the world.
Often, a mother or child’s death could easily have been prevented: some simple training could have enabled a member of her community to give her the appropriate care, or to recognise that she needed to be taken urgently to hospital. Somaliland’s communities, government and health practitioners are eager to train nurses and midwives.
The Pharo Foundation is funding training focussed on bringing down the high rates of infant and maternal death. Medical Aid Films (MAF) is a specialist provider of health training films. It uses film to reach large numbers of people in regions with poor transport and where literacy and language can create barriers to learning.
MAF’s local partner is the Somaliland Nurses and Midwifery Association (SLNMA), one of whose aims is to provide training to existing and new nurses and midwives.
MAF’s work in other countries has already shown how effective simple training films can be:
“These are absolutely wonderful. The calm tone and great graphics and animation are very easy to remember – even if English isn’t the first language of the audience.” Kathleen West, First Ladies Initiative/Leadership for Women’s Health, Sierra Leone/Namibia
“A traditional birth attendant brings the mother to the hospital when she is in distress and this is often too late, but if we bring a video to show them what a mother can go through and how the outcome can be different, well, knowledge is power! Training these people can really help with maternal death…”
Operating Theatre Nurses Training, Somaliland
Nurses and midwifes provide almost all the medical care in Somaliland: it will be largely down to them to turn round the country’s terrible infant and maternal death rates.
After the conflict which tore the country apart, there were few trained nurses and midwives left in the country, and those who were working there were often poorly trained. So a small group of nurses and midwives set up the Somaliland Nursing and Midwifery Association (SLNMA).
Today it has over 3000 members, of whom 764 are active qualified nurses and midwives working in health care. It is their professional organisation, promoting nursing and midwifery, looking after its members’ interests, and facilitating training. Working with training institutions, the SLNMA has standardised and unified the training curriculum for nurses and midwives.
The Pharo Foundation is funding a new programme to be run by the SLNMA, to train 30 qualified nurses as operating theatre nurses. The nurses will come from all six regions of the country and will return to these regions once they are trained.
Operating theatre nurses play a complex role before, during and after surgery. This training will prepare them to work within the operating theatre team, preparing patients and supporting them, maintaining a sterile environment, assisting with anaesthesia, maintaining documentation, dispensing supplies and medications, estimating fluid and blood loss, handling and caring for specialist equipment, supplies, instruments and specimens, and performing as a scrub or circulating nurse.
Operating Theatre Nurses Training, Somaliland
Nurses and midwifes provide almost all the medical care in Somaliland: it will be largely down to them to turn round the country’s terrible infant and maternal death rates.
After the conflict which tore the country apart, there were few trained nurses and midwives left in the country, and those who were working there were often poorly trained. So a small group of nurses and midwives set up the Somaliland Nursing and Midwifery Association (SLNMA).
Today it has over 3000 members, of whom 764 are active qualified nurses and midwives working in health care. It is their professional organisation, promoting nursing and midwifery, looking after its members’ interests, and facilitating training. Working with training institutions, the SLNMA has standardised and unified the training curriculum for nurses and midwives.
The Pharo Foundation is funding a new programme to be run by the SLNMA, to train 30 qualified nurses as operating theatre nurses. The nurses will come from all six regions of the country and will return to these regions once they are trained.
Operating theatre nurses play a complex role before, during and after surgery. This training will prepare them to work within the operating theatre team, preparing patients and supporting them, maintaining a sterile environment, assisting with anaesthesia, maintaining documentation, dispensing supplies and medications, estimating fluid and blood loss, handling and caring for specialist equipment, supplies, instruments and specimens, and performing as a scrub or circulating nurse.
Matron Hilda Mubanga, Chitambo Hospital, Zambia
Source: The Pharo Foundation
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