Sharing education at Mulago Hospital

The team is back in the United States, home from another full mission of interdisciplinary exchange at the Mulago Hospital of Makerere University in Kampala. We taught, directed practice, and learned much about delivering health care in Uganda.

With input from the nursing staff of Mulago we were able to direct our teaching and training efforts to areas of post op care that they felt most in need of. This included reviewing the pathophysiology of congenital heart defects and the indications for and uses of cardiac medications, calculating and preparing cardiac medications and infusions, discussing a variety of cardiac case scenarios, interpreting chest xrays and ECG wave forms, treating post operative pain and discussing cultural differences in providing pain control, and demonstrating physical assessment and discussing and treating the findings.

All of this teaching was done while the nurses provided excellent bedside care to the ten patients and their families. All teaching was done at the bedside during both day and night shifts. The Mulago and UNCH nursing teams were enthralled by the teaching and learning and could have spent many more hours discussing the nursing care involved in treating children following open heart surgery.

Over the ten days, we reconnected and strengthened our bonds with the staff nurses. These nurses were so very keen about practicing and refining the nursing skills they had learned during the past 'pediatric cardiac surgery camps' that it was both a privilege and a pleasure to be with them as they worked to perfect their nursing care. It was quite obvious from their practice and their questions that they have incorporated much of what has been presented to them in the 'camps' UNCH and other groups have provided. I look forward to continued collaboration with the Mulago nursing staff developing and implementing further educational resources.

-- Diane Yorke, PhD, RN, Clinical Education Coordinator for the UNC Project-Uganda