Training the trainer in Tanzania

Education beyond basic training is largely unavailable for many of the healthcare workforce in Africa. But a small UK-based charity, run by healthcare professionals, is striving to address this issue – providing specialist education to theatre nurses working in the high risk area of perioperative care. Friends of African Nursing (FoAN) believes that sustaining and building local capacity for healthcare is very important to ensuring that providers and nurses have the ability to improve the quality of care for patients and to protect themselves. Indeed the risks to the team are very real – blood-borne disease is rife, so education on self-protection is one area where volunteer healthcare professionals in the UK can help to make a real difference. The programme is also about promoting growth of individual knowledge, encouraging professional development, and enabling potential leaders to stay within their home nations to improve local delivery of perioperative care for all surgical patients. Until 2007 the charity offered a threevisit programme: • Visit one provides an update on the basic principles of perioperative care. • Visit two involves visiting three hospitals in the country to audit theatre practice and offer on site advice. • Visit three provides a leadership course for potential nurse leaders. In November 2007, “Train the Trainers” was added as “visit four” in Malawi. This was funded by the Scottish Office as part of their commitment to supporting FoAN programmes in that country. The evaluation was so positive that this fourth visit is now being rolled out to other African countries.

Training the trainers in Tanzania

The aim of this fourth visit is to train the nurses to be trainers within perioperative care so that they can pass on their knowledge and standards to other colleagues. This will hopefully ensure that the knowledge imparted during the first three visits of the FoAN development programme is shared with others, providing sustainability. The key objectives are to develop: skills in teaching and assessing, knowledge and skills in delivering training, an understanding of the principles of teaching, and learning confidence in making presentations to colleagues. I travelled to Arusha in Tanzania in September 2009 with Kate Woodhead, chairman of Trustees, to deliver the programme. Day one is preserved for arrival, set-up and preparation. On this occasion we had also been invited to attend the opening ceremony of the East, Central and Southern African (ECSA) Health Community Annual Conference that was taking place in Arusha. We met the Health Minister of Tanzania and chief nurses from several countries across the health community. Kate Woodhead also gave a presentation at the conference, later in the week, on “Safe Surgery Saves Lives” and the role of Friends of African Nursing in supporting perioperative nurses across Africa. The programme then started with nine senior perioperative nurses from hospitals close to Arusha attending. Following an entertaining icebreaker, sessions included: