Heba and Yana, two nurses working in the Alia hospital in Hebron, have just returned from a specialized burns training in Bangladesh, organized by Interburns with the support of Medical Aid for Palestinians. MAP has been supporting burns care in the West Bank and Gaza for many years. We provide medication and medical disposables to the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, and are currently helping to establish a dedicated Burns Unit at Alia Hospital.
The training the two nurses took part in was designed by Interburns specifically to help nurses working in resource-poor environments to deepen their understanding of topics such as paediatric burns care, pain control and infection prevention – all vital to improving the quality of treatment for burns patients. The course’s trainers also came from far-and-wide, including representatives from India, Ghana, Ethiopia, Nepal, and the UK.
Heba and Yana scored highest of all 40 participants. We caught up with Heba when she returned to Palestine, to hear about what she and Yana had learned from the experience:
“I was so proud that I and Yana had the best scores. It proves that the course was very helpful and that we learned a lot. The training that Interburns gave in Hebron was mostly theory, but in the hospital in Bangladesh we got some very hands-on experience dealing with the patients. Seeing a whole hospital just for burns patients in Bangladesh makes me believe we will be able to offer great care to the patients coming to the burns unit in Alia hospital. They have very limited resources in Bangladesh, but they are so creative in finding solutions and optimising care with what they have. We need to do the same in Palestine.
“The education for nurses in Palestine is limited and general; there are very few opportunities for career development, so almost all of the information was new to me. I learned more about dressings for burns patients, the psychological support they need, and about nutrition. After completing the training, I felt very confident that I will be able to give the best care and I am hoping to share my knowledge to my colleagues in Palestine and to become a trainer myself. Maybe I will become the first Arabic-speaking specialized burns trainer!
“The cases we saw in Bangladesh were all very severe and complex. What would be among the worst cases in Palestine are more typical in Bangladesh. In Palestine, luckily, the hardest cases we see are electrical or explosive burns. Meeting these patients and learning how to deal with them made me more confident. Before I took this training I felt a bit scared to work in burns because it is one of the most difficult fields, but now I feel that I can do it. It was a unique opportunity and essential to guarantee the success of the newly established burns unit.”
“My family was very scared for me, but I was convinced that I had to take this opportunity. It was great to meet nurses who are working in burns treatment already, I learned a lot from their experience.”