Somaliland Healthcare News

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Reformation of Somaliland
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SL President has declared that Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine will commence on Saturday in nationwide. SL received the 1st batch of Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday. President Bihi has officially announced that the inoculation vaccine will begin in the country. He accentuated that he will be the first person to receive the inoculation in the country to set an example to save many life. He added that no one will be compelled to take the vaccine but those who do not able will be treated differently to avoid affecting others. He stated that the vaccine will play a crucial role to mitigate the pandemic. Bihi said: ” The vaccination we received yesterday is the same vaccine that almost every country is using. The vaccine is completely optional. There will be no one forced to take the vaccine but you should know that it is needed. Vaccination will begin on Saturday. If anyone says they do not want to take part. Such person will be medically recorded. If he becomes positive, he will be isolated from the country.”
 

ZodiaK

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I started a spay and neuter campaign in Hargesia Somaliland while I was working with Cheetah Conservation Fund. There is a large feral dog population in the city. And CCF wanted to get a program on the way to spay and neuter them, as well as vaccinate them against rabies and other communicable diseases. The HALO Trust came onboard and assisted us in doing the dogs on their side of the city.


 

ZodiaK

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Trauma Center Berbera

 

ZodiaK

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Preparing medical students for clinical practice: How health educators from the UK and Somaliland are transforming Somaliland’s health education system​


2020 was designated ‘Year of the nurse and midwife’ by the World Health Organization. As the year draws to a close, we look at how health educators from the UK’s National Health Service and UK universities are working with their counterparts in Somaliland to transform undergraduate education for doctors, nurses and midwives.


Somaliland’s health education system faces challenges that many countries will recognise... A lack of formal pedagogical training for lecturers, critical gaps in university curricula, and insufficient opportunities for students to develop their skills in clinical settings.


As a result, students often graduate without the vital knowledge, skills and practical experience they need to practise safe, patient-centred healthcare.


Prepared for Practice (PfP) seeks to address these challenges through an integrated approach to health education system reform. The project has three strategic aims: improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in medical, nursing and midwifery schools; strengthening the capacity of lecturers and management of medical, nursing and midwifery schools; and strengthening national governance and management of education for health professionals.


Part of the UK-aid funded SPHEIR programme, PfP is delivered through a partnership model which connects volunteer health workers and educators from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and UK universities with health schools in Somaliland to promote skills, knowledge exchange and mutual learning. The PfP partnership is led by King’s Global Health Partnerships, an initiative of King's College London (UK), working with Amoud University, Edna Adan University and Teaching Hospital, and University of Hargeisa from Somaliland, plus UK organisations MedicineAfrica and the Tropical Health and Education Trust.


Improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment​


Through PfP, UK health workers deliver weekly online tutorials at three of the country’s leading health schools – Hargeisa, Amoud and Edna Adan universities - to complement and address gaps in the curriculum. Online courses are delivered through MedicineAfrica, a digital educational platform, covering core subject areas in internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, radiology, mental health, communications skills, nursing and midwifery.


Hannah Burrows, PfP Programme Manager explains, “Since the project launched in 2017, PfP has delivered online distance education courses to over 700 medical, nursing and midwifery students and examined over 500 students. We have also supported partners to implement an evidence-based examination process that tests students’ clinical skills and behaviours, and overseen the conduct of written and practical exams, ensuring only those students who are ready enter the health system. Covid-19 has meant the partnership is unable to travel to Somaliland, yet the project has managed to continue delivery of many formerly face-to-face activities by utilising our online teaching and video conferencing platform in new and innovative ways.”


Strengthening the capacity of lecturers and managers​


At the institutional level, PfP is building the capacity of higher education personnel. UK volunteers with expertise in educating health professionals design and deliver a one, two and three-year course in Health Professions Education, enabling lecturers to develop knowledge and skills in pedagogy, lesson planning and designing student assessments.
So far, PfP has trained over 100 academics on student-centred teaching, pedagogy, assessment and curriculum development. This has contributed to significant improvements in how medical, nursing and midwifery students are taught and assessed: 100% of lecturers participating in the project report making changes to the way they plan lessons, teach and assess students. Partner universities have started to take on the running of the Health Professions Education course in this last year of the PfP project, with both Amoud University and University of Hargeisa setting up Educational Development Centres within their institutions, and introducing completion of the certificate year as a mandatory requirement for teaching faculty.


Strengthening national governance and management of education for health professionals​


At a national level, PfP has supported the Somaliland government in developing the country’s first national Medical Education Policy, which outlines how government, regulators, and universities can collaborate to produce a well-trained medical workforce. The partnership has also supported independent assessment of medical schools, ensuring institutions training health workers meet an internationally recognised standard for medical education.
 

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King’s Global Health Partnerships is excited to be partnering with the Ministry of Health Development in Somaliland, the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to develop Somaliland’s first national strategy for quality of care, based on the WHO’s recently developed package of resources: Quality of Care in Fragile, Conflict Affected and Vulnerable Settings.

In low resource settings, there are many challenges and constraints to the delivery of quality care. We will bring together relevant stakeholders to understand the current status of quality care in Somaliland, and the challenges and gaps in quality improvement (QI) approaches in the health system. Our NHS partners will support colleagues to undertake facility assessments of Borama Regional Hospital, our newest partner in Somaliland, and up to seven health centres within its referral area, using audit tools developed by WHO.

These facility assessments will help us understand where to focus our support- regarding staff training and the procurement of resources, such as personal protective equipment for health workers. Clinical experts from the NHS will then volunteer their time to provide top-up training to healthcare workers in one priority area as identified in the assessments, such as Infection Prevention and Control or triage.
Maternal and neonatal care Somaliland

We will also train 25-35 healthcare workers in the basic principles of QI over a period of five months, building on our long-term partnership with Amoud University. The trainees will develop and implement their own QI projects during this time with support from their QI volunteer mentors.

Though the project is only eight months long, we are hoping this small pilot leads to further work to support Somaliland’s Ministry of Health Development in drafting and rolling out national quality of care guidelines.

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