Local instructor team conducts paediatric life support training in PNG

Local instructor team conducts paediatric life support training in PNG

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), the Port Moresby General Hospital and Advanced Paediatric Life Support Australia (APLS) have formed a partnership and collaboratively designed a project to deliver a range of Paediatric Life Support training courses in Papua New Guinea (PNG) over the next three years. This project, funded through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT’s) Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) and RACS Foundation for Surgery, will increase the capacity of healthcare workers to effectively respond to, and manage, acutely ill and injured children presenting to the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of hospitals in Port Moresby and Lae. These two hospitals treat over 15,000 children in their ICUs annually. Three related courses will be provided to healthcare workers. The first in the series is a one-day introductory course covering the basics of emergency paediatric management, with a focus on the first 10 minutes of emergency care. Participants then progress to the three-day advanced course, which increases confidence and skills across a range of paediatric emergencies. One of the objectives of this project is to increase local capacity to continue providing these training courses. So a three-day instructor course will also be provided to participants identified during the advanced course as having the capacity to become effective local instructors. There are currently only eight fully accredited local instructors. The Generic Instructor Course trains participants to become qualified Advanced Paediatric Life Support course instructors. Through this project, RACS and the Port Moresby General Hospital expect to substantially increase the cohort of accredited local instructors. It is estimated that 324 healthcare workers will have access to one or more of these vital training courses between 2020 and 2023.

In previous years, RACS has deployed Australian-based instructors, who volunteer their time and expertise, to conduct this and other important clinical training. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, RACS has not been able deploy any Australianbased instructors to PNG since February 2020. Therefore, for the first time, the one-day introductory Paediatric Life Support course was provided in December 2020 by an entirely local team of instructors. Planning was supported remotely by RACS, with Associate Professor Bruce Lister AM, a paediatric intensivist, and Dr Zafar Smith, an emergency medicine physician. Associate Professor Lister and Dr Smith have been actively involved in training the local team of instructors over several years. Dr Kone Sobi from Port Moresby General Hospital leads the local team of instructors and is extremely dedicated to their development and the continued provision of the training in PNG. Through his effective leadership, mentoring and support, two very competent colleagues, Dr Gwenda Anga, a paediatric oncologist, and Dr Arabella Koliwan, an emergency medicine registrar, both from Port Moresby General Hospital, were the primary local facilitators of the introductory course. Their first course was conducted for 48 healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and community health workers, on 8 and 9 December 2020.

Dr Koliwan reported that the local instructors were surprised by how well they were able to independently conduct the training. This is a testament to their modesty, but also to their skills as accredited instructors, which Dr Sobi, Associate Professor Lister and Dr Smith have all played a huge role in developing. We had every confidence in the local team and the COVID-19 pandemic gave them the opportunity to demonstrate their training ability. During the two days of training, Chris Graham, First Secretary at the Australian High Commission in PNG, was on hand to present training certificates to the 48 participants and to formally hand over an Advanced Paediatric Life Support kit, funded by DFAT through RACS’ PNG Clinical Support Program, to the Port Moresby General Hospital.