A new curriculum to train providers working in Africa in pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) has been developed and certified by the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM). It will be pilot tested with a group of emergency care providers in Tanzania in February and March of 2019, in collaboration with Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I will be leading this pilot training and evaluation along with a group of PEM providers from my department at UCSF. This trip will not only provide training for Tanzanian providers who care for critically ill and injured children (a train-the-trainer model will be used to ensure that local providers will be able to continue training after the completion of this pilot), but the pilot will provide critical feedback for curriculum revisions before it is released to AFEM for free distribution across the continent. This will allow emergency care providers throughout Africa to be able to access critical learning and improve the care and survival of children.
This project will benefit critically ill and injured children in Tanzania, which will expand to those across all of Africa once the curriculum has been revised and distributed via AFEM. MNH is the national referral hospital for Tanzania and cares for the sickest children referred from around the area, so this is the most high-impact place to conduct our pilot training.
1. The most direct impact of the training will be the increased knowledge and skills of the emergency care providers in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania that we train.
2. However, those providers will continue training other providers throughout Tanzania after we have left.
3. Once the curriculum has been revised and submitted to AFEM, it will be distributed to their membership and made freely available via their website. The current membership of AFEM is made up of over 2000 people from more than 25 countries in Africa and they are a professional society devoted to the development of emergency medicine on the continent. This curriculum has the potential to improve the survival of critically ill and injured children across Africa.
Fifteen nurses from the emergency department at the national referral hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were trained in basic pediatric emergency care over 3 days. They participated in lectures, skills stations and simulated scenarios. They received certificates of completion for the course from the local professional society, the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM). Feedback for the course was overwhelmingly positive and will guide revisions to the curriculum. Once revised, the curriculum will be posted on AFEM's website and made freely and publicly available for all providers working in Africa.
