Hello everyone,
I arrived safely in Ghana yesterday (Monday) and today was the first day of training sessions. This morning I taught Basic Life Support to a (mostly) engaged group of both health care workers and a couple of non-health care workers (including an accountant - who did a great job by the way).
The afternoon group was Helping Babies Breathe (a simplified form of newborn resuscitation for more resource limited settings). Thanks Malinda Harris for use of your slides from when you were with along last year. For those who may not know, both Malinda Harris (neonatal fellow extraordinaire) and Jim Homme were critical in helping to establish these training programs when we traveled together to Ghana in July 2013 (along with my wife Becky who also pitched in and helped) for the first training of trainers sessions and brought along thousands of dollars worth of equipment (much donated or purchased through generous donations) to lay the groundwork for ongoing training in both Basic Life Support and HBB.
Some of today's trainees also intend on becoming trainers themselves to expand the pool so they can continue training sessions year round. Some seem promising, others may need quite a bit more work themselves before they are ready to teach/train others.
It's a great pleasure working with members of Africa Partners Medical Ghana (the group who hosts the training sessions). They really work hard to help realize the primary mission of Africa Partners Medical - to prevent unnecessary illness and deaths in West Africa.
Tomorrow we will repeat BLS in the morning and HBB in the afternoon. Those intent on becoming trainers will start to take a more active role in helping facilitate the classes and by Thursday (in theory) I should be watching them train and giving feedback.
I am thankful that the air conditioning in the main training hall was working today and that we didn't have any problems with the electricity or the equipment (other than a couple of the HBB mannequins deflating since they are actually filled with air). The water to the toilets wasn't running but a large garbage can with a bucket to scoop water into the back of the toilet (to allow flushing) did the trick.
Ebola hasn't hit Ghana (thankfully) but even in the short time I've been back there is obviously a much bigger push for good hand hygiene then I'd previously encountered (I'm not the only one carrying hand sanitizer around in my pocket and using it regularly).
Closer to the equator it gets darker much earlier than I'm accustomed to with my beloved Minnesota summer days but I was able to get out for a walk around my hotel for a while this evening (not much to see other than traffic and focusing on the sidewalk irregularities so as not to trip and fall).
At this time I'm planning on having our little girl Joy come to stay with me from Thursday evening through Sunday morning before I start the journey home (she actually lives in a community about three hours from where I am now so I have to wait longer to see her).
I was a bit disappointed to learn yesterday that there will not be a court hearing for us this week but maybe next week (fairly typical story but I'm still optimistic that we are actually going to make some progress soon). I am not needed at this particular hearing but was hoping to put in appearance if it overlapped with my stay. I will be sure to send some pictures of Joy and me together once I have some.
I hope all is well with you all. I will try to send more updates as the week progresses. I did not intentionally leave anyone off the distribution list so please forward if you can think of anyone who might be interested.
Take care,
-Jay
I arrived safely in Ghana yesterday (Monday) and today was the first day of training sessions. This morning I taught Basic Life Support to a (mostly) engaged group of both health care workers and a couple of non-health care workers (including an accountant - who did a great job by the way).
The afternoon group was Helping Babies Breathe (a simplified form of newborn resuscitation for more resource limited settings). Thanks Malinda Harris for use of your slides from when you were with along last year. For those who may not know, both Malinda Harris (neonatal fellow extraordinaire) and Jim Homme were critical in helping to establish these training programs when we traveled together to Ghana in July 2013 (along with my wife Becky who also pitched in and helped) for the first training of trainers sessions and brought along thousands of dollars worth of equipment (much donated or purchased through generous donations) to lay the groundwork for ongoing training in both Basic Life Support and HBB.
Some of today's trainees also intend on becoming trainers themselves to expand the pool so they can continue training sessions year round. Some seem promising, others may need quite a bit more work themselves before they are ready to teach/train others.
It's a great pleasure working with members of Africa Partners Medical Ghana (the group who hosts the training sessions). They really work hard to help realize the primary mission of Africa Partners Medical - to prevent unnecessary illness and deaths in West Africa.
Tomorrow we will repeat BLS in the morning and HBB in the afternoon. Those intent on becoming trainers will start to take a more active role in helping facilitate the classes and by Thursday (in theory) I should be watching them train and giving feedback.
I am thankful that the air conditioning in the main training hall was working today and that we didn't have any problems with the electricity or the equipment (other than a couple of the HBB mannequins deflating since they are actually filled with air). The water to the toilets wasn't running but a large garbage can with a bucket to scoop water into the back of the toilet (to allow flushing) did the trick.
Ebola hasn't hit Ghana (thankfully) but even in the short time I've been back there is obviously a much bigger push for good hand hygiene then I'd previously encountered (I'm not the only one carrying hand sanitizer around in my pocket and using it regularly).
Closer to the equator it gets darker much earlier than I'm accustomed to with my beloved Minnesota summer days but I was able to get out for a walk around my hotel for a while this evening (not much to see other than traffic and focusing on the sidewalk irregularities so as not to trip and fall).
At this time I'm planning on having our little girl Joy come to stay with me from Thursday evening through Sunday morning before I start the journey home (she actually lives in a community about three hours from where I am now so I have to wait longer to see her).
I was a bit disappointed to learn yesterday that there will not be a court hearing for us this week but maybe next week (fairly typical story but I'm still optimistic that we are actually going to make some progress soon). I am not needed at this particular hearing but was hoping to put in appearance if it overlapped with my stay. I will be sure to send some pictures of Joy and me together once I have some.
I hope all is well with you all. I will try to send more updates as the week progresses. I did not intentionally leave anyone off the distribution list so please forward if you can think of anyone who might be interested.
Take care,
-Jay
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