Do you remember when the AusHEAL and Gateway Baptist Church funded training center opened last spring? Well, it’s being utilized and greatly appreciated!

Training Rooms 1 & 2

Two training groups use Training Rooms 1 & 2 twice each week with approximately 10 people attending both the Family Medicine Training Program and the COSECSA Basic Surgical Training Program.

Once each week, an Interns (medical students) Training Program (approximately 8 people) is facilitated in Training Room 2. Training Rooms 1 and 2 are both air-conditioned, making it a much more conducive environment for ‘learning’ (especially in the afternoons when everyone is tired!).

Main Lecture Room

In recent weeks, the regular Monday afternoon Doctors’ meeting (comprising a Bible Study followed by a clinical presentation) started being held in the main lecture room.  Approximately 30 doctors attend these sessions. A huge blessing is that whoever is presenting does not have to stop every time a loud plane flies over – the windows can remain closed thanks to the air-conditioning.  

The Main Lecture Room was also a very suitable venue to hold the recent COSECSA written exams, when 5 of the surgical Trainees sat 2 x 2-hour ‘multiple choice question’ exams.                          

Library

The Library is in full swing–with any day seeing up to 6 doctors at any one time studying in the Library and/or Reading Room.

Three times a week, there is a morning surgical ‘handover’ meeting, where the doctors (and interns) who have been ‘on call’ overnight present cases to the other doctors in the surgical department.  Recently these ‘handover’/training sessions have been held in the Library of the Training Centre with approximately 10 people in attendance.

Training Materials / Equipment

Dr Muller (Emergency Medicine Specialist whose training was sponsored by AusHEAL) is preparing to conduct teaching sessions using the mannequins supplied through an Australian Government Direct Aid Program (DAP) grant.

Hire of Facilities

Income generation has been a positive outcome through the hiring of one of the Training Rooms for 1 week in June by the Zone de Sante de Goma (Health Area of Goma) for training of 11-15 nurses in Cardiology.  

Other Activities

• One-on-one English training sessions are being held once or twice per week.
• Earlier in the year, English classes were being held 2-3 times per week for nursing staff and also for the Finance Department staff.   
• The HATS (HEAL Africa Training Services) Management Team will also be using the space to conduct its quarterly meeting in the Training Centre.

We at HEAL Africa are extremely grateful, particularly those in the medical training department. Again, we want to thank Gateway Baptist Church and AusHEAL for their generosity in providing a beautiful training facility. The new space and resources have already improved the learning environment for Residents and the training experience of the HEAL Africa medical teaching staff (and also, hopefully, clinical staff outside of HEAL Africa.)