In recent years, physicians at the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital have worked with the Belize Ministry of Health and Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) to implement a program to recognize and respond to children arriving to Belizean hospitals with critical illness. This program is based on the WHO's Emergency Triage, Assessment, and Treatment (ETAT) course. The goal is to rapidly triage every pediatric patient arriving to a healthcare facility, recognize those that are critically ill, and quickly intervene with potential life saving measures. Several years ago we implemented this program through an initial train the trainer course that included participants from around the country and consisted of physicians and nurses. These trainers then worked to train their Belizean colleagues from all areas of Belize. We have conducted several follow up trips to support our Belizean colleagues and ensure high quality across Belize. Due to the COVID pandemic, the program has waned over the past 2 years. This current trip, at the request of the Belize Ministry of Health and KHMH, is an effort to restart the program and continue this educational and programatic initiative. We will work with old and new trainers to expand our trainers and plan for ongoing educational trainings and program initiation.
The staff we will work with in Belize will go on to train doctors, nurses, nursing assistants in the recognition of critically ill pediatric patients across Belize. They work in many facility types, such as large referral hospitals like KHMH to small community health centers on the islands. We hope that through this effort, we will improve the care for all kids in Belize.
As we have in the past, we will continue to support the ETAT team in Belize after we leave. this will include periodic refresher courses, trainings, logistics support, etc. We have been working with our Belizean partners for years and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
We expect that, over time, this project will improve the health of children throughout Belize. This trip is part of a partnership with health leaders within Belize to improve the healthcare received by children experiencing medical emergencies. The individuals trained during this trip have already gone on to train more of their colleagues. Over time, and with continued partnership, we hope to improve the care that children receive across the country.
