14 Nov Safer surgery training in Sierra Leone
Free, safe surgery changes lives. From Fudia to Auguste, so many women, men and children have been filled with hope after their successful surgeries on board one of our hospital ships.
But there’s still so much more to be done. In sub-Saharan Africa, 9 out of 10 people can’t access safe surgery when they need it. Analysis from a Lancet paper on Global Surgery revealed that in low-income countries, “more people die within 30 days of surgery annually than from all causes related to HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.”
These deaths are sadly due in part to unsafe surgical instruments used in some settings, which can put patients at risk of infection.
But thanks to your kind donations, things are changing. Mercy Ships is supporting a new programme aimed at reducing surgical infection rates at Connaught Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Hands-on training
By partnering with the Sterile Processing Education Charitable Trust, 20 nurses attended a two-week, hands-on training course about the sterilisation processes.
Larry Lawrence, an operating theatre nurse, said the course helped him greatly.
“This training has helped me understand how to sterilise the instruments properly, immediately after an operation,” explains Larry. “We’ll also be able to go back and train other staff on how to do this,” he said. “The rate of infection in the hospital will get better through the intervention of Mercy Ships.”
During the two-week course, the nurses listened to lectures, watched presentations, and actively participated in sterile cleaning and processing exercises. From learning how to prepare a cleaning station to the correct disposal of the dirty water, and ensuring that tools would not be contaminated after they had been cleaned, each nurse learned what to do at the different stages.
“These participants are learning the standards for sterile processing in surgical environments, how to clean materials, how to store materials and the best practices to keep a safe operating environment so that they can reduce surgical site infections as much as possible,” explains Massiami Soumahoro, Education Training and Advocacy Programme Officer.
“We want this training to contribute to strengthening the entire healthcare system in Sierra Leone, and make sure that the nurses who will be trained during this period will not only serve in Freetown but will go on to impact the entire healthcare system in the country.”
Training healthcare workers is at the heart of our Education, Training, and Advocacy strategy. Please give to help provide life-saving tools and training.