Evaluation of a Global Surgery Training Program in Ethiopia

Le résumé fourni par la source

Introduction: One of the means to address issues in global surgery is facilitating local health worker’s engagement in research and quality improvement (QI) projects. The Lifebox McCaskey safe surgery fellowship is a year-long program focusing on this area with a novel approach involving training of multidisciplinary teams using locally recruited mentors. The fellowship was also supported by monthly didactic sessions by a panel of experts. Methods: A qualitative study was implemented to evaluate the training program. Fellows, mentors and coordinators were interviewed using semi-structured interview guides. Transcripts were manually coded to identify themes and analyzed. Results: Thirty participants were interviewed. Findings showed gain of knowledge and skills in safe surgery practices, research techniques and QI skills. The fellowship’s design to include all surgical teams was among the core ideas that was appreciated by the fellows. They also found the mentorship helpful. Additionally, the program brought about change in behavior as most started promoting global surgery and used gained competence to work on improving surgical care after the fellowship ended. Main challenges reported were maintaining motivation of fellows and resistance from hospitals when implementing QI projects. There were also difficulties related to the virtual nature of most sessions due to COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: We found very promising results of the novel multidisciplinary training and mentorship approach. This safe surgery training model can be successful in enhancing participants knowledge, skill, behavior, and culture regarding safe surgical practices. We believe the fellowship program can easily be adapted and expanded for use in other low- and middle-income countries.

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