Burns injuries – from industrial accidents, house fires, and even arson attacks by Israeli settlers – are a prevalent risk to health for Palestinians, and can have serious life-long effects. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has long recognised these risks, and therefore helped to establish, train and equip the West Bank’s only dedicated Burns Unit at the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.
With the imposition of a network of 450 checkpoints and roadblocks, it can take Palestinian burns victims from the South many hours to reach this unit in the North. Every delay increases the chance of infection, sepsis and other fatal complications, and so improving access to care for those living in the south could be vital to saving lives.
In response to this need, MAP is helping to develop a second burn unit at Alia Hospital, in the southern city of Hebron, which will begin its work in January 2017.
Burns are amongst the most difficult injuries to treat, and require specialist training. This is particularly apparent under the challenging conditions of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) where medical professionals often do not have access to all the resources they require. MAP’s Burns Programme in the oPt took another step forward last month with a training programme hosted by our partner Interburns – a global network of burns care professionals – in Ramallah.
The training followed on from an initial course held in Hebron in January 2016 for staff at Rafidia and Alia Hospitals. Participants attending the training included 26 surgeons, nurses and physiotherapists working at the two hospitals as well, as a number of Continuous Professional Development instructors in Palestine. These instructors can also teach Essential Burn Care (EBC) to Primary Health Care clinics and other NGO run clinics across the West Bank.
The training aimed to improve the quality of care received by burn patients of all ages in the oPt. The four days of training began with a standard EBC course, followed by more detailed practical sessions and case discussions. Topics covered included the fundamentals of EBC, quality improvement, service assessment tools, scar management, burn prevention, and burns reconstructive surgery.
According to Interburns, the participants were one of the most enthusiastic and engaged groups that they had had the pleasure of training worldwide, and this was reflected in the effectiveness of the programme. All participants completed pre- and post-course evaluations, which showed an average improvement of over 70% in their knowledge of burn care and a 50% increase in their overall confidence in treating burns patients. “The training was very informative for all surgeons, nurses and other staff,” Dr Al Mashni from Alia Hospital said, having recently returned from practical training in India.
The training provided a solid foundation for further, more advanced training which has been planned, and the handover of the running of the Essential Burn Care course to a local team in 2017. A physiotherapist, Ammar Abu Hamdeh working in Rafidia Hospital, emphasised the importance of getting more advanced practice on burns management across care specialties.
MAP and Interburns would like to thank the Ministry of Health, in particular Dr Amal Abu Awad, Director General of Education in Health for the Ministry of Health, for all their help in facilitating the training programme for their staff. Dr. Abu Awad told MAP: “These trainings by Interburns are excellent as they continue to develop the skills of our burns staff”.
Special thanks to the Interburns team: Richard Bandel, Tom Potokar, RuthAnn Fanstone and Sian Falder for forming the faculty for the programme and for providing such a great course.
If you would like to support MAP’ work improving care for Palestinian burns patients, please donate today!