Training
Ugandan Health Care Workers
One of the primary missions of the UNC Project−Uganda is to train health care workers at Mulago Hospital.
Nurses on the UNC team train working nurses at Mulago to be post-pediatric cardiac surgery competent. Over the years these training efforts have gone from an unstructured curriculum taught primarily at bedside to a more formal training program including classroom and hands-on clinical training and learning assessments to measure progress.
In 2008 the UNC heart team nurses and respiratory therapists, with help from Diane Yorke, MBA, PhD, RN, Clinical Assistant Professor in the UNC School of Nursing, designed a core curriculum based on the pediatric cardiac care curriculum at UNC Health Care.
Formal classes are scheduled during the first 3 days of the mission and content is subsequently reinforced and repeated at bedside. Copies of curriculum materials are kept at the Makerere Hospital Education Department.
The results of an online assessment direct the next phase of the curriculum. By advancing the level of content with each mission, the knowledge of the local nurses increases alongside the complexity of the congenital cardiac defects being corrected by the heart team.
UNC Nurses and Physicians
The UNC School of Nursing is currently developing a program that will provide nursing students with the opportunity to travel with the heart team. In this global health service-learning experience, students will participate in two activities, one at Mulago Hospital and the other in a local orphanage. Members of the heart team will serve as mentors.
Students will also participate in course work that focuses on delivery of health care in resource-constrained settings, team work, and individual reflection.
UNC Project−Uganda also hopes to build a training program for UNC pediatric care physicians and surgical residents. The Uganda program would allow residents in cardiac surgery to participate in 10 or more open heart procedures in the span of two weeks, an opportunity not afforded them at UNC Hospitals.
Telemedicine
The program is looking to secure funding to develop and deliver online and telemedicine for joint medical, surgical, and nursing educational opportunities with Makerere University, Mulago Hospital, and other Ugandan regional hospitals. The ability to observe procedures via videoconferencing will provide ongoing learning opportunities for health care workers in Uganda and help to ensure UNC Project−Uganda’s sustainability.
