PRIME

Partnerships in International Medical Education

Africa

Waiting to see the doctor in AfricaAngola: PRIME Portugal tutors are exploring possibilities of whole person medicine teaching programmes at a university there in 2018.

Cambodia: During 2017 a PRIME tutor conducted an exploratory visit whilst in-country with another agency and as a result a couple of new possibilities are being explored. Initially it seems likely that our first teaching in the country will be in specialist anaesthesia combined with whole person care.

Cameroon: Connections have been made with potential partners and an initial programme based on The Good Teacher manual has been delivered.

Egypt

Ethiopia

Ghana: A team of nine PRIME tutors contributed to a five-day practical multi-professionals conference at the Central University College in Greater Accra. This was followed by a two-day PRIME workshop for tutor training. The meeting was extremely successful with a strong local lead emerging to develop PRIME throughout Ghana. We continue to stay in touch with several contacts in the country, though no events are being developed in detail at present.

Kenya

Mozambique: Two PRIME tutors from Portugal have delivered training programmes in the three main medical schools of Mozambique to around 200 delegates including students and faculty members. The programme in each location covered whole person care, frameworks for ethical decision-making, virtue ethics, and spirituality in healthcare. The former Minister of Health attended the PRIME course in Maputo Medical School and the current Director of the Institute of Health Sciences (the most prestigious nursing school of the country) invited the team to address the opening lecture to about 300 new nursing students, health professionals and members of the faculty.

Nigeria

Rwanda

Sierra Leone: PRIME teams have been involved in primary care development, medical and nursing school training. A PRIME team have delivered several whole person medicine events in central Freetown. Links are also continuing with the Aberdeen Womens’ Centre, a visit to a link hospital with Peninsula Medical School and the proposed site for the VSO RCGP doctors programme. Our activities in Sierra Leone have inevitably been put on hold due to the Ebola outbreak but we are developing plans to contribute to the necessary rebuilding of the healthcare system in due course.

South Africa: We were unable to attend the CMF South Africa conference in person due to ill health but at their request an introductory DVD was provided for the national CMDA conference. We are exploring invitations to teach at a family medicine department, two new Christian Medical Schools and to contribute to the ACHAP African Christian Health Associations Platform conference in February 2017 around ‘Caring for our patients and each other’ and ‘Enhancing teams and preventing burnout’.

South Sudan: Our Australian partners are working with the National Institute for Health Sciences to train health workers in South Sudan. It seems likely that there will be openings for PRIME tutors to help in this process working with ICMDA and a key medical school for nationals currently operating out of Uganda.

Swaziland: We are exploring links with a new national medical university being established in association with the King of Swaziland, the University of Pretoria SA and a Korean University.

Tanzania: Potential project development being explored

Uganda

Zambia: Palliative care and faculty development. PRIME tutors ran a training of trainers and basic palliative care programme at Chainama College of Health Sciences in Lusaka, and has on-going links with partners there. We are a founding partner in the Zambian Health Workforce Alliance which aims to increase the number of healthcare workers in the country. Most recently PRIME contributed to a recent programme teaching pre-hospital care. A new potential partnership is being explored to develop nurse education in the capital Luzaka, initially around compassion and patient-centred care.

Zimbabwe: A PRIME team was invited to give a whole person medicine taster to third-year medical students. Following which the university has indicated a desire that all students should have PRIME training at the start of their clinical training and again just before qualification. We look forward to further developments. PRIME were invited to attend a faculty meeting where, after seeing the student feedback, the conclusion was that PRIME teaching was needed for each cohort of students as they start their clinical training and again just before they qualify. We hope very much that these developments will be in conjunction with our tutors in Nigeria as well as some from the UK.

If you have an interest in Africa you can raise money or donate to the Tom Garrett Memorial Fund which supports PRIME projects in this great continent.