Advanced nursing skills for Ethiopia and Malawi

Nursing is a crucial aspect of burn care and burns are often thought of as one of the most challenging specialties in nursing. In many resource-poor countries, training opportunities for nurses to learn specific burns treatments and core aspects of care are limited or non-existent. 

Interburns developed the Advanced Burn Care (ABC) Nursing course in 2015, as part of the broader ABC programme of advanced training for staff from Low and Middle Income Countries. The course has been run 4 times, in Bangladesh (2016), Ghana (2017), Nepal (2018) and now Ethiopia (2019), using a mixed faculty of nurses and other health professionals from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Each time, the core curriculum is revised and materials contextualised. fThe course is practical and hands-on with a focus on group work, interactive case studies and problem-solving. A combination of local instructors and international faculty help overcome language barriers that could reduce the effectiveness of the teaching.

33 nurses took part in the programme, which was held at Yekatit-12 Hospital, Addis Ababa, where one of the two main government burn units is based. 24 nurses from across Ethiopia were trained, including staff from AABET, Yekatit, Alert and other services in Addis, as well as regional units in a number of other cities such as Jimma, Gondar, Mekelle, Harer and Hawassa.

6 nurses also attended from 3 main units at central hospitals in Malawi, in Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu. The programme was attended by 3 nurses from the International Committee of the Red Cross, working in Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Gaza strip.

Interburns would like to thank the fantastic team who made up the faculty for the ABC Nursing with a mixture of nursing, nutrition, therapy and programmes expertise. The mixed team comes from the UK, France, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Nepal and the West Bank, in a true embodiment of the Interburns spirit of bringing together colleagues from across the world to share their expertise, experience and passion for burn care.

Interburns would also like to thank our local colleagues at Yekatit Hospital for hosting the training programme and our partners in Ethiopia, AMREF Health Africa, for their support in organising the accommodation, local logistics, and other support. The Federal Ministry of Health for Ethiopia also offered support for visas for the visiting instructors and overseas participants, which was much appreciated.