Expertise : an international network of Heath professionnels

EXPERTISE

AN INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Medics Without Vacation’s network of health professionals consists of more than 500 expert-volunteers organised in different working groups.

Expert-volunteers:

68 Surgeons

47 Gynaecologists

35 Pediatricians

4 Psychiatrists

78 Anaesthetists

20 Internists

8 Public health doctors

177 Nurses

32 Midwives

16 Physiotherapists

29 Technical engineers

29 Other specialties

(neurologists, biologists, medical imaging, etc.)

Working groups

In order to structure, but also to facilitate the work of our network, the expert-volunteers gather in work groups. These working groups are organised according to specialities: pediatrics, surgery, anesthesia, gynaecology-obstetrics, internal medicine, emergencies & intensive care, pharmacy, hospital hygiene, physiotherapy, medical imaging, laboratory/lab, mental health, public health & hospital management, infrastructure & equipment. Furthermore than their expertise, one of the strengths of Medics Without Vacation lies within these groups: a community of experts who work together around a specific theme, with an explicit objective in order to present an efficient result that can be shared with their colleagues. The aim is to:

• Improve the quality of in situ training missions through sharing (para)medical, technical and organisational knowledge

• Develop, spread and support the implementation of protocols, guidelines/standards and modules

4 roles in the expertise

Our experts make a major contribution to the cooperation with Medics Without Vacation’s partner hospitals. These hospitals are empowered so that they can fulfil their role in the health system, provide quality care and prepare, react and adapt adequately in the event of a crisis.

To this end, the expert-volunteers of the Medics Without Vacation network operate on 4 levels:

ROLES FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS WITHIN THE MWV NETWORK

Coaching

• Training (on the job or workshops)

• Online courses and coaching

• Train the trainers

• Monitoring and supervision

Mobilising

• Testimonials

• Communication

• Fundraising

• Awareness raising

Coaching

The specificity of Medics without Vacation is to carry out in situ training courses which are based on the 70-20-10 learning model. The staff learn 70% «on the job» (by practicing), 20% through personal follow-up or social learning (conversations, networking, feedback) and 10% through formal knowledge transfer.

Practical training

Adapting

• Working groups

• Improving methodologies and innovations

• Harmonisation, standardisation

• Documentation and evaluation of experiences

Connecting

• Expanding the network

• Mentorship

• Conferences/publications

• Lobbying and partnerships

Model: 70 : 20 : 10

learning on the job

Based on this 70-20-10 model, Medics Without Vacation mainly engages with its network of expert-volunteers by organising on-the-job training in targeted hospitals during multidisciplinary working visits.

Training courses that aim to empower the capacity of hospital professionals are defined after a thorough analysis of each hospital, based on national standards, the technical, medical and support services of a 1st referral hospital, patient flow and existing staff skills.

For each in situ training, a multidisciplinary team of experts is sent to a 1st referral hospital for a limited period of time, but sufficiently and reasonably enough to cover the training needs, during which they work with the entire whole team of the hospital’s department. The principle is to bring together the expert-volunteers and the hospital team around concrete cases. Exchanging, working together to care for patients, to respond to real problems and to exchange on practices (bedside teaching).

A characteristic of Medics Without Vacation’s approach is that it focuses on the needs of the learner by organising training at the work place. This has the advantage of not detaching the health staff from their workplace, of reaching the whole team of the service at the same time and not just a few individuals, of training the learners in their own environment with their often-limited means, and of providing them with the opportunity to participate in the training. It will bring specialist medicine closer to the peripheral population, increase the possibilities of exchange between learners, as well as organisational and financial benefits.

Learning through interpersonal relationships and peer-to-peer exchanges.

Links are formed between hospital staff and experts during their stay in the field. The side-by-side cooperation between the trainer and the learner facilitates the establishment of trust and communication channels.

Medics Without Vacation provides its network with tools to maintain links between participants beyond the training courses. The aim is to create a community of professionals who interact with each other independently. The benefits of the training courses last because they are reinforced with each exchange. New skills are also transmitted through this network. Indeed, the educational activities implemented are built around a permanent mentoring, based on an interpersonal relationship, also during formative supervision and post-training follow-up.

We also organise courses and training in specialised centers (training hospitals), which completes the range of possibilities offered and strengthens the creation of links between health professionals.

Adapting

Our experts also play an important role outside the field by responding to various requests from hospitals. Based on their expertise and experience, they proactively propose improvements in a demand-driven way.

This permanent support includes many forms of joint reflection within the work groups:

• Finding solutions to hospital-specific problems

• Proposing innovations or improvements based on findings in the field

• Development of strategies in their specific health areas.

• Harmonisation of protocols, development of training packages and advocacy for health-related issues.

Connecting

The strength of Medics Without Vacation lies within its network of expert-volunteers and the exchanges that take place inside it. In recent years Medics Without Vacation has been trying to capitalise on this asset, the network, in order to duplicate it in the countries where we are active. The aim is to have communities of experts in each country forming a transnational network. The different experts of different nationalities work together on the same activities, each bringing to the other -experts and learners - their knowledge, experience and expertise.

One way to develop these national communities of experts is through collaboration with existing learned societies. These learned societies (surgical society, pediatric society, etc.) organise together with Medics Without Vacation the sharing of medico-technical practices and approaches in their specialty.

For the development of the community of expert-volunteers, Medics Without Vacation also aims to activate the most experienced experts to act as mentors for new experts joining the organisation’s network.

Mobilising

Finally, our expert-volunteers act as ambassadors to raise awareness, advocate and communicate on the challenges of health for all. Each person at their level in their country shares their experiences, becomes an ambassador for Medics Without Vacation’s approach and spreads the knowledge, practices and techniques provided by the experts.

To ensure that this complex and important role is fulfilled in a professional way, Medics Without Vacation sets up an «ambassador journey» which consists of training courses, provision of tools, etc., which provide a framework for this ambassadorial role and ensure that our actions are sustainable.

Approach

These different roles are based on two axes, two complementary approaches:

1. Approach to build the capacity of a hospital through a Capacity Building Journey (CBJ)

2. Thematic approach to capacity building of a group of hospitals

The CBJ methodology for 1st referral hospitals is a structured, demand-driven knowledge-sharing approach to strengthen the knowledge and skills of (para)medical staff, strengthen technical and support services for the purchase, use and maintenance of biomedical equipment, improve hospital management and the systemic approach of the hospital in the health district.

In parallel, and in a complementary manner, our expert-volunteers also work on a thematic basis, specifically regarding maintenance, hygiene, basic surgery, protocols for pediatric emergencies, where the results will also have national or even transnational applications, well beyond the partner hospital supported.

Fields of expertise

Our expertise in hospital care is based on more than 40 years of experience around core services for a 1st referral hospital such as internal medicine, basic surgery, maternity, pediatrics, including each of the subspecialties, as well as other cross-cutting areas including biomedical and technical maintenance, hospital hygiene and hospital management, public health and mental health.

More specifically:

• Basic surgery

• Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care

• Pediatrics

• Mental Health

• Hospital Hygiene

• Hospital Management

• Maintenance of biomedical equipment

Medics Without Vacation is an international NGO and forms a dynamic network of over 500 health professionals and experts in Belgium and Africa who are committed to working together for accessible, quality and resilient health care. Through a comprehensive patient-centred approach we contribute to empowering the capacity and skills of hospitals.