We plan to teach using didactic lectures, medical simulation, and small group teaching. Our educational goals are to improve provider understanding and care of pediatric populations as it relates to traumatic injury prevention, stabilization, and management. We hope that considering that traumatic injuries are one of the leading causes of death in Belize, that this will decrease pediatric mortality in the region.
The population served and directly benefited are the providers who we plan on teaching: nurses and physicians practicing in the larger hospitals and polyclinics in Belize. The course is going to be offered to providers who regularly care for acutely ill children.
We've chosen this population as the group of people who have the opportunity for the most impact in optimizing care for the acutely ill pediatric patient.
The curriculum allows for multi-modal teaching techniques and testing on the topics covered to assess for efficacy. The providers are then provided with algorithms to reference on the topics covered. We hope that after completion of the curriculum in Belize City, we will be able to carry out the curriculum again in one of the larger cities in Belize. Furthermore, we hope to publish our findings and our teaching materials for use in other lower resource settings internationally where providers hope to optimize care of the critically ill pediatric patient.
We taught about 70 healthcare workers (physicians and nurses) about identification and stabilization of pediatric traumatic injuries. Topics included general trauma survey, head and cervical spine injuries, non-accidental trauma and child abuse, and orthopedic emergencies.
Some feedback includes the following:
• "Even though it was a two-day experience, I feel that I retained an enormous amount of new information and my comfort dealing with emergency peds cases has greatly improved
• Each instructor was patient, willing to answer questions, and clarify doubts. Presentations by each were clear and easy to understand
• Informative presentations, useful information, especially in our everyday practices. Thank you!
• Greatly appreciate your effort
• It is very useful because some of these topics are overlooked and it is very important for us to learn what to do in these cases, especially when we suspect any type of abuse
• Everything was well organized
• Thank you to all of them, great to have them all again
• The course is helpful
• Thank you all so much for giving your time"
