It's the birth of a new era in modern obstetric and surgical care in the East African nation of Tanzania.
Thanks to a project undertaken by the White Rock Rotary Club, now in its 70th year, the Benjamin Mkapa national referral hospital, associated with the University of Dodoma (Tanzania's capital city), is currently gaining the benefit of a major medical training program.
According to club international services director Terry McGauley, the hospital is about the size of most modern hospitals in urban Canada.
He told Peace Arch News the hospital, and university, train over 200 medical doctors per year and over 250 nurse midwives per year – as well as receiving major trauma cases and other types of cases that the other hospitals in the country do not have the capability to handle.
"The country is presently experiencing very poor surgical outcomes and a high death rate for mothers and infants during birthing," he noted.
"The medical and nursing students presently receive a substantial amount of theoretical training but very limited practical experience, and the training program is designed to address these issues."
He added that a skills training laboratory has been developed, furnished and equipped to help with providing the experience the students need.
Training will be undertaken by faculty members from the universities across Canada, provided by the Canadian Network for International Surgery, and the electronic course curricula will be available to the university and hospital for future use, McGauley said.
"The training program will involve training the instructors from the Health Sciences Faculty of the university plus the medical and nursing students and will involve well over 500 medical professionals."
Training will be provided in modern obstetrical practices for specialists, modern surgical practices, obstetrical practices for nurse midwives and modern trauma team practices.Training will involve not only the provision of critical information but also all-important practical operating room experience.
A quality assurance program will also be undertaken, about a year following the training, to confirm the students and faculty are employing procedures correctly and mentoring provided as required.
"The trained medical professionals will treat thousands of patients using modern practices over their working lives," McGauley said.
"The benefits to Tanzanian citizens will be substantial considering the hospital and university will have trained professionals plus a skills training laboratory that can be used to train their own medical and nursing students but can also train staff from surrounding hospitals."
For information on how to become a member, or support the Tanzania project, visit the website at whiterockrotary.org
