Partnership training underway to better ambulance care
THE Rotary Club of Georgetown, in partnership with the Global Emergency Medicine Initiative (GEMINI), in an effort to enhance the medical care and attention given to victims from the point of accidents to hospital, has devised a programme to train 25 ambulance staff. It is expected that the trained personnel could, eventually, become teachers on a permanent basis.
The training, which costs US$46,500, started on Monday and will end today. Five highly qualified instructors are conducting the course that includes lecturing, teaching practical skills and daily evaluations.
Rotary President, Mrs. Anna Lisa Fraser-Phang spoke about the project at the Georgetown Club, on Camp Street, at a Tuesday press conference, where she was joined by Public Relations Director, Kit Nascimento, Initiator and Project Leader Ovid Fraser, GEMINI Director Paul Gallagher and Instructor Timothy Redding.
According to Nascimento, the intention is to better the emergency medical response capacity of Guyana, in particular the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) and trainers from the United States (U.S.) are here to implement the initiative.
Ovid Fraser, a Guyanese who left these shores in the 1960s, said he and Gallagher came here four years ago to explore the possibility of providing a programme in emergency medicine locally.
Interviews were conducted with numerous people in the Rotary Club and in the medical profession, with the objective of learning some of the country’s needs. The need for technician training on ambulances arose and Fraser said they decided that mainly to train technicians on one or two visits was not an adequate input. Therefore, it was thought best to train a group of people who could be teachers on a permanent basis.
Skills that could deliver this knowledge were then recruited and a team of two doctors and three emergency medical technologists, who actually teach in the U.S. and are experts, came for the purpose.
Redding, who is one of the five instructors, said they will have to ensure that the students being taught actually know how to teach afterwards. They were given text books before and all of the teaching is through power point lectures and numerous links to other educational sites.
He said the expectation is that everyone will finish the course and, after three months, the instructors will return to ascertain how well the persons being taught at present could teach others. Once they are satisfied that the trained individuals can teach “up to standard”, they will be left on their own. If they are not, Redding said the instructors will offer remediation.
Nascimento disclosed that funding for the undertaking comes from three clubs in Massachusetts, together with local sponsorships from Scotiabank, Citizens Bank, Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T), John Fernandes Limited, Mings Products and Services and Republic Bank.