Capacity for Pediatric and Emergency Care Improves thanks to Project HOPE Program
Three courses were taught to health professionals in less developed areas of China to build capacity for pediatric and emergency care.
Project HOPE is working to strengthen the capacity of pediatric care at hospitals in less developed areas of China through our China Rural Health Professionals Training Program. This program is improving the knowledge and skills of health care professionals in pediatric critical and intensive care. The program is also building the capacity of qualified emergency and intensive care units through outreach training and field coaching, as well as through the donations of critical equipment for the hospitals.
In the summer of 2013, Project HOPE and professionals from Shanghai Children’s Medical Center taught three courses at hospitals in the less developed western and northeast regions of China.
In Guangxi Guilin People’s Hospital, “Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)” was taught to 60 medical staff from hospitals in Guangxi province and the Guilin area. In addition “Basic Life Support” was taught to 12 of those staff. The training courses were welcomed by the local health department and were even given attention from local newspapers, which reported about them in detail and gave positive evaluations.
The PALS course taught such topics as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the proper use of fluid resuscitation and its treatment, oxygen mask pressure, tracheal intubation, the heart electrical cardioversion/defibrillation method and the bone marrow puncture infusion method.
The three-day “Basic Life Support” certification course offered a simulation of the emergency process, and students were able to master standard First Aid.
“Pediatric Intensive Care Respiratory Therapy and Management” was held in Guizhou People’s Hospital and Jilin Provincial Hospital. 100 medical professionals from Guizhou Province and 70 from Jilin Province actively participated in the course. The course taught many topics related to respiratory medicine including acute lung injury, diagnosis of acute respiratory failure, clinical applications of mechanical ventilation, oxygen therapy, and bronchoscopy. Treating intractable cases of severe pneumonia was also discussed.
The China Rural Health Professionals Training Program has provided additional training to nearly 1,000 health professionals in less developed areas of China since it began in 2009. The educators from the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center have been moved by the students’ enthusiasm for learning and their desire for knowledge. Through the continuation of this program, together we can improve prognosis and reduce child mortality.