Training and retaining surgical expertise in Africa
People in rural sub-Saharan African regions often don't have access to hospitals and staff to perform basic emergency and elective surgical procedures. This leads to needless deaths and on-going morbidity related to pregnancy, accidents and a variety of conditions that can be surgically managed at the district hospital level. To remedy this situation, the EU-funded 'Clinical officer surgical training in Africa' (COST - AFRICA) project aims to establish training programmes for non-physician clinical officers (COs) in Malawi and Zambia. The training programmes cover surgical training for common conditions, management and research. Furthermore, researchers have designed and are using data collection tools to measure surgical outputs, cost effectiveness and impacts of the programme. Due to this project and at the request of host country ministries, Bachelor of Science degree programmes in surgery have been accredited at the Universities of Malawi and Zambia, thereby creating more attractive career paths for retaining clinical officers in these countries. COST - AFRICA will provide a tested model for African countries for using trained and supervised surgically competent COs to serve the needs of rural populations, working in the district hospitals where they are most needed.
Keywords
Medical training, non-physician clinicians, clinical officer, surgical training, rural populations
