Background
The expansion of local training programmes is crucial to address the shortages of specialist paediatric surgeons across Sub-Saharan Africa. This study assesses whether the current training ...programme for paediatric surgery at the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) is exposing trainees to adequate numbers and types of surgical procedures, as defined by local and international guidelines.
Methods
Using data from the COSECSA web-based logbook, we retrospectively analysed numbers and types of operations carried out by paediatric surgical trainees at each stage of training between 2015 and 2019, comparing results with indicative case numbers from regional (COSECSA) and international (Joint Commission on Surgical Training) guidelines.
Results
A total of 7,616 paediatric surgical operations were recorded by 15 trainees, at different stages of training, working across five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Each trainee recorded a median number of 456 operations (range 56–1111), with operative experience increasing between the first and final year of training. The most commonly recorded operation was inguinal hernia (
n
= 1051, 13.8%). Trainees performed the majority (
n
= 5607, 73.6%) of operations recorded in the eLogbook themselves, assisting in the remainder. Trainees exceeded both local and international recommended case numbers for general surgical procedures, with little exposure to sub-specialities.
Conclusions
Trainees obtain a wide experience in common and general paediatric surgical procedures, the number of which increases during training. Post-certification may be required for those who wish to sub-specialise. The data from the logbook are useful in identifying individuals who may require additional experience and centres which should be offering increased levels of supervised surgical exposure.
Background
In East, Central and Southern Africa accurate data on the current surgeon workforce have previously been limited. In order to ensure that the workforce required for sustainable delivery of ...surgical care is put in place, accurate data on the number, specialty and distribution of specialist-trained surgeons are crucial for all stakeholders in surgery and surgical training in the region.
Methods
The surgical workforce in each of the ten member countries of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) was determined by gathering and crosschecking data from multiple sources including COSECSA records, medical council registers, local surgical societies records, event attendance lists and interviews of Members and Fellows of COSECSA, and validating this by direct contact with the surgeons identified. This data was recorded and analysed in a cloud-based computerised database, developed as part of a collaboration programme with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Results
A total of 1690 practising surgeons have been identified yielding a regional ratio of 0.53 surgeons per 100,000 population. A majority of surgeons (64 %) practise in the main commercial city of their country of residence and just 9 % of surgeons are female. More than half (53 %) of surgeons in the region are general surgeons.
Conclusions
While there is considerable geographic variation between countries, the regional surgical workforce represents less than 4 % of the equivalent number in developed countries indicating the magnitude of the human resource challenge to be addressed.
Pediatric age groups constitute more than 50% of the Sub-Saharan African, SSA, population. Very poor socioeconomic conditions and rare and advanced pathologies are the major health challenges of the ...region. Despite the overwhelming burden of diseases in the region, the health workforce and infrastructure are underdeveloped. The overall poverty, poor hygiene and sanitation, and widespread infectious disease with very limited infrastructures (road, health institutions) on top of lack of government commitment to improve the health of their people are some of the drawbacks that fail to address the unmet needs of pediatric health in SSA. Complications of surgical care have become a major cause of morbidity and mortality with significant implications for public health. These issues are magnified in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa. The challenge is even more prominent in pediatric surgery, where the population is larger, and there is a shortage of specialists. In this lecture, I describe the difficulties faced from the East African and Ethiopian perspective as well as the role of colleges from high income countries to support SSA to address the unmet pediatric surgery needs.
Ethiopia has a high unmet need for pediatric surgical conditions. Over the past 5 years, new changes have been introduced to the pediatric surgery division at Addis Ababa University to overcome this ...issue. The changes include initiation of pediatric surgery residency, allocating operating room for pediatric surgery, weekend surgical campaign and starting ultrasound guided hydrostatic reduction. We conducted this study to evaluate the pattern and outcome of pediatric surgical cases after these changes.
The study was a retrospective review conducted at Tikur Anbessa Hospital from Jan - Dec 2019. Data was collected from duty report forms that included emergency procedures, admissions and mortalities. Data on elective procedures was collected from operation theater log books.
Overall, a total of 1590 pediatric surgical procedures were performed during 2019 of which 942 cases were elective and 648 were emergency. This was an increment in number of surgeries performed by 75%. The leading emergency procedure was aerodigestive foreign body removal which increased by 46%. Surgery for intussusception has decreased by 30% with increasing use of hydrostatic reduction. Overall, average morbidity and mortality was 3.5% and 6.9% respectively. Morbidity and mortality rates were similar throughout the year.
The study shows increased productivity over the past year with the changes made in the department. There is also no increment in morbidity and mortality during the start of the academic year. This implies adequate consultant supervision of residents during transition.
In response to a physician shortage in Ethiopia, the number of medical students admitted to public universities was rapidly increased through a "flooding" policy.
To assess medical student ...perceptions on the impact of the "flooding" policy on medical education and e-learning initiatives, as well as plans for future emigration.
A cross-sectional survey of medical students at AAU was implemented in 2014. Attitude and practice items were assessed using a Likert scale. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify characteristics associated with an interest in future emigration.
673 (99.6%) of 676 students approached completed the survey, representing 39.5% of all 1705 medical students enrolled at AAU in 2014. Most students felt the "flooding" policy had a negative impact on their medical education and >90% felt there was not adequate infrastructure to support the increased student body. E-learning activities to accommodate increased class size included distribution of electronic tablets, but at the time of the survey only 34.8% of students still had a working tablet and 82.3% reported problems with internet connectivity. Most preclinical students (85.1%) who had attended live-streamed lectures preferred traditional classroom lectures. Half of the students (49.5%) intended to practice medicine in Ethiopia. Independent risk factors for planning to emigrate included age <21 years (aOR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.04, 1.97); having applied to medical school for reasons other than "wanting to be a physician" (aOR = 1.55, 95% CI 1.14, 2.20), and not believing that "flooding" policy would increase the number of physicians working in Ethiopia (aOR = 1.87, 95% CI 1.33, 2.58).
The "flooding" policy lead to significant educational challenges that were not fully alleviated by e-learning initiatives. Concomitant increases in resources for infrastructure development and faculty expansion are needed to maintain quality medical education. Additional research is needed on factors that influence medical graduates decision to emigrate.
Background
As surgical systems are forced to adapt and respond to new challenges, so should the patient safety tools within those systems. We sought to determine how the WHO SSC might best be adapted ...during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
18 Panelists from five continents and multiple clinical specialties participated in a three-round modified Delphi technique to identify potential recommendations, assess agreement with proposed recommendations and address items not meeting consensus.
Results
From an initial 29 recommendations identified in the first round, 12 were identified for inclusion in the second round. After discussion of recommendations without consensus for inclusion or exclusion, four additional recommendations were added for an eventual 16 recommendations. Nine of these recommendations were related to checklist content, while seven recommendations were related to implementation.
Conclusions
This multinational panel has identified 16 recommendations for sites looking to use the surgical safety checklist during the COVID-19 pandemic. These recommendations provide an example of how the SSC can adapt to meet urgent and emerging needs of surgical systems by targeting important processes and encouraging critical discussions.
To assess medical and nursing students' intentions to migrate abroad or practice in rural areas.
We surveyed 3199 first- and final-year medical and nursing students at 16 premier government ...institutions in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia. The survey contained questions to identify factors that could predict students' intentions to migrate. Primary outcomes were the likelihoods of migrating to work abroad or working in rural areas in the country of training within five years post-training. We assessed predictors of migration intentions using multivariable proportional odds models.
Among respondents, 28% (870/3156) expected to migrate abroad, while only 18% (575/3158) anticipated a rural career. More nursing than medical students desired professions abroad (odds ratio, OR: 1.76; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.25-2.48). Career desires before matriculation correlated with current intentions for international (OR: 4.49; 95% CI: 3.21-6.29) and rural (OR: 4.84; 95% CI: 3.52-6.66) careers. Time spent in rural areas before matriculation predicted the preference for a rural career (20 versus 0 years: OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.19-1.98) and against work abroad (20 versus 0 years: OR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.50-0.96).
A significant proportion of students surveyed still intend to work abroad or in cities after training. These intentions could be identified even before matriculation. Admissions standards that account for years spent in rural areas could promote greater graduate retention in the country of training and in rural areas.
A rapid transition from severe physician workforce shortage to massive production to ensure the physician workforce demand puts the Ethiopian health care system in a variety of challenges. Therefore, ...this study discovered how the health system response for physician workforce shortage using the so-called flooding strategy was viewed by different stakeholders.
The study adopted the grounded theory research approach to explore the causes, contexts, and consequences (at the present, in the short and long term) of massive medical student admission to the medical schools on patient care, medical education workforce, and medical students. Forty-three purposively selected individuals were involved in a semi-structured interview from different settings: academics, government health care system, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Data coding, classification, and categorization were assisted using ATLAs.ti qualitative data analysis scientific software.
In relation to the health system response, eight main categories were emerged: (1) reasons for rapid medical education expansion; (2) preparation for medical education expansion; (3) the consequences of rapid medical education expansion; (4) massive production/flooding as human resources for health (HRH) development strategy; (5) cooperation on HRH development; (6) HRH strategies and planning; (7) capacity of system for HRH development; and (8) institutional continuity for HRH development. The demand for physician workforce and gaining political acceptance were cited as main reasons which motivated the government to scale up the medical education rapidly. However, the rapid expansion was beyond the capacity of medical schools' human resources, patient flow, and size of teaching hospitals. As a result, there were potential adverse consequences in clinical service delivery, and teaching learning process at the present: "the number should consider the available resources such as number of classrooms, patient flows, medical teachers, library…". In the future, it was anticipated to end in surplus in physician workforce, unemployment, inefficiency, and pressure on the system: "…flooding may seem a good strategy superficially but it is a dangerous strategy. It may put the country into crisis, even if good physicians are being produced; they may not get a place where to go…".
Massive physician workforce production which is not closely aligned with the training capacity of the medical schools and the absorption of graduates in to the health system will end up in unanticipated adverse consequences.
In Ethiopia, the health care delivery and the system of medical education have been expanding rapidly. However, in spite of the expansion, no studies have been carried out among medical students to ...identify their career choices and attitudes towards the medical instruction. Therefore, this study aimed to fill the gap in evidence in these specific areas.
Pretested questionnaire was self-administered among fifth and sixth year medical students in six government owned medical schools in Ethiopia. A total of 959 students were involved in the study with a response rate of 82.2%. Career choices, intention where to work just after graduation, and attitudes towards medical instruction were descriptively presented. Binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with the intention of medical students to work in rural and remote areas.
Majority, (70.1%) of the medical students wanted to practice in clinical care settings. However, only a small proportion of them showed interest to work in rural and remote areas (21% in zonal and 8.7% in district/small towns). For most, internal medicine was the first specialty of choice followed by surgery. However, students showed little interest in obstetrics and gynecology, as well as in pediatrics and child health as their first specialty of choice. Medical students' attitudes towards their school in preparing them to work in rural and remote areas, to pursue their career within the country and to specialize in medical disciplines in which there are shortages in the country were low. The binary logistic regression model revealed that a significantly increased odds of preference to work in rural and remote areas was observed among males, those who were born in rural areas, the medical students of Addis Ababa University and those who had the desire to serve within the country.
This study showed that Ethiopian medical schools are training medical workforce with preferences not to work in rural and remote places, and not to specialize in disciplines where there are shortages in the country. Thus, attention should be given to influence medical students' attitude to work in rural and remote locations and to specialize in diverse clinical specialties.
Since the introduction of MRI as a sustainable diagnostic modality, global accessibility to its services has revealed a wide discrepancy between populations-leaving most of the population in LMICs ...without access to this important imaging modality. Several factors lead to the scarcity of MRI in LMICs; for example, inadequate infrastructure and the absence of a dedicated workforce are key factors in the scarcity observed. RAD-AID has contributed to the advancement of radiology globally by collaborating with our partners to make radiology more accessible for medically underserved communities. However, progress is slow and further investment is needed to ensure improved global access to MRI.
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