From October 24 – 28 Erik van Roon went to Tamale, Ghana and conducted the first Accident & Emergency course. This was done in cooperation with one of the consulting anaesthesiologists from Tamale Teaching Hospital, dr. Anabah. He was also an active facilitator/trainer during the course and will be in between the teaching weeks. The first teaching week became a combination of lecturing and practicing in the classroom and teaching on the job. The participants are trained to become trainers at their own ward, the train the trainer principle. This means that the participants will be taught didactical skills as well as in-depth knowledge on Accident & Emergency. During the 6 modules of the Accident & Emergency program the participants will become more and more competent, so that at the end of the day, when SIMED and MeduProf-S move out, Tamale Teaching Hospital has competent teachers in Accident & Emergency. The five participants were very enthusiastic and eager to learn and together with dr. Anabah they will take full ownership of the courseThe topics covered the first week were the ABCDE-method in combination with the hourglass model as a standard approach for every patient who attends tot the Accident & Emergency, airway management, introduction of a triage system; The South African Triage Scale (SATS). This in order to expedite the delivery of time-critical treatment for patients with life threatening conditions and to ensure that all people requiring emergency care are appropriately categorized to their clinical condition.
Basic Life Support was also lectured and practiced. Thanks for the hospitality and until next time!