Enhancing healthcare system in Uganda: Gov’t to construct regional simulation labs
MBARARA – Government is planning to establish regional medical simulation laboratories in a bid to minimise medical errors in hospitals and health centres in the country.
While touring Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital [MRRH] and Mbarara University of Science and Technology [MUST] days ago, officers from the Ministry of Health and Seed Global Health Uganda said medical stimulation is important in the delivery of health/clinical services.
Seed Global Health Uganda is a non-government organisation that partners to train nurses, midwives, and physicians, building complete health teams that can provide high-quality care and save lives.
On the other hand, according to Wikipedia, medical simulation is a branch of simulation related to education and training in medical fields of various industries. In the past, its main purpose was to train medical professionals to reduce errors during surgery, prescription, crisis interventions, and general practice. Combined with methods in debriefing, it is now also used to train students in anatomy, physiology, and communication during their schooling.
Dr. Richard Mugahi, assistant commissioner for reproductive and infant health in the Ministry of Health said most patients have lost their lives as a result of medical errors which he said can be avoided if medical simulation training is embraced in health facilities.
Mugahi said simulation said they would roll out simulation training and establishment of related laboratories at the regional health centres of excellence.
He said once put simulation facilities are put in place, they will minimise human errors related to the handling of patients and also improve the quality of healthcare at the health facilities.
“Government has very many priorities but this is something that we need to invest in. “We want our patients to get the best possible health care services either from private or government health facilities,” Mugahi said.
Dr. Data Santorino, a senior lecturer in the department of pediatrics at MUST noted that most health of the trainees have not had opportunities to work in teams.
“One of the biggest gaps is that medical trainees don’t get the opportunity to practise their knowledge and skills in teams. Medical simulation prepares medics emotionally, mentally, and also empowers the trainees with skills to work as a team to save people’s lives,” Santorino said.
He added that some of the errors committed are both commission and omission errors where health care workers fail to perform necessary interventions that a patient needs to survive.
“If we are to improve the medical training in Uganda, we need to operationalise the entire circle of learning to gain skills’ proficiency, develop a powerful and wholistic health work with a powerful health care system in the country,” Santorino said.
He however said establishing and maintaining medical simulation laboratories is expensive for health facilities and higher institutions of learning that teach health courses.
“Medical simulation is one of the best methods of learning but is quite expensive. Setting up the lab alone costs around US$ 100,000,” he said.
Christine Nimwesiga, the registrar of Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council [UNMC] said she has already launched a campaign of putting up simulation centres to train and impart knowledge and skills to all the nurses in Uganda.
However, she was dissatisfied that MRRH is reluctant to deploy most of the nurses in the emergency department. “Nurses are the pillars of the health services, they are critical in offering emergency services. Let them [nurses] also train in this field of emergency medicine,” he said.
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