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| Research team: Dan, Nyasige, Theresia, Olive |
Olive and I are once again in Africa,
this time in Tanzania, doing research follow-up visits to hospitals that Sterile Processing Education Charitable Trust (SPECT) has been working with over the past year. We are assessing the impact of
the education and mentoring that SPECT's Educator, Christina, along with several volunteers, provided
to staff from 10+ hospitals in the Kagera and Mara regions. During her last visit to these hospitals, Christina recommended a number of changes based on international best practices. We have been very encouraged this past week to observe all the changes that have been implemented. The surgical instruments look much cleaner
(each hospital received some brushes, rust remover and lubricants at the training sessions), most hospitals have
discontinued using chlorine for disinfection (as recommended by WHO), staff
seem to be more consistent in use of PPE and changes have been made to the flow
of instruments to decrease cross contamination. These staff certainly feel
better about their work and more empowered with the knowledge they have
received and several hospital directors have reported decreasing surgical site
infection rates.
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| Common meal we have enjoyed - Tilapia from Lake Victoria |
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At one group meal we ordered the "sampler platter" of chicken, lamb, mutton, tilapia, shrimp and beef samosas with french fries, banana slices, potato wedges and assorted veggies
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Travel in rural Tanzania in the areas where we work is
challenging, roads are rough particularly the highways that cross the country
used by heavy trucks transporting items to/from landlocked countries to port
cities. I was however, pleasantly surprised this week to travel on one highway in Kagera where improvements had been made and now allowed speeds of about 80 km/hr
whereas last year it was around 40-50 km/hr.
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| Flowering Cassia Tree |
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| Taking a boat ride on Lake Victoria |
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Bismarck Rocks - famous landmark in Mwanza
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| Birds playing "king of the castle" |
For the most part, we are healthy and in good spirits. The second translator we hired has been a big help and the driver we hired last week had a great command of English, which made travelling much more pleasant. We
are now in Mwanza for the weekend. It is a beautiful city right on Lake
Victoria and is centrally located between the two regions where we work.
On a further note we are moving ahead with plans for education and mentoring in SE Asia starting in Cambodia – ethics approval has been granted for the research portion of the
project from Mount Royal University and we are now able to apply for approval in Cambodia. We also
had the opportunity to connect to SPECT’s first Videoconference (Project Echo)
with all the Tanzanian trainees from the 10 SS2020 hospitals. Christina had the opportunity to reconnect, hear
their updates and concerns, and provide further support from her home in
Canada. It was great to see our funders and a representative from the Ministry
of Health attending the session as well. We’re hoping this will not only
provide on-going support locally but also bring further support for SPECT’s
work.
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| View of Lake Victoria from our hotel in Bukoba |
