Rwanda

 

 

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Teaching and Learning Course in Kigali

From Patty:
You have to be a very special person to sit in 32 degree weather in a hot classroom all day and stay engaged with the topic of teaching and learning for medical professionals.  Fortunately, we had a group of 20 such people.

On another note, the simulation centre is being fully used each day.  We had a big group in the front room and another group of emergency medicine learners were in the back room.  Thank goodness we have the best washroom at CHUK in the sim centre!

From Kitt:
Hello friends!

Today “Dr. Ruth” and “Dr. Patty” did a fabulous job of delivering the Teaching and Learning Course to the Rwandans. We had a mixed bag of residents and staff from the disciplines of Surgery, Emergency Medicine and Anesthesia. Kyle and I have been participants of this engaging course at Dalhousie. Today we mostly observed, with a view to delivering the course ourselves tomorrow, along with two Anesthesia staff here, Dr. Francoise and Dr. Christian.
Ruth and Patty have put a tremendous amount of work into developing this course, and it shows! I think it evolved out out of both a need for improved teaching in the medical field, as well as their own passion for fostering an environment for lifelong learning. The course is divided into 4 sessions: Teaching Small Groups, Presentations, Clinical Teaching, and Mentorship and Coaching. The sessions were highly interactive and there was tremendous participation from everyone in attendance. The sim centre was hot (it’s 31 degrees today), but the fans were working and we had some nice breaks for hydration and feeding! We are all pumped about how the day went, and Kyle and I are especially looking forward to the opportunity to help deliver another course tomorrow.
Kitt

Thursday, January 19, 2017

new teachers

Ruth and I were delighted to watch Francoise, Kyle, Kitt and Christian offer the Teaching and Learning Course today for a new group of learners.  They all did a fabulous job and brought their own unique styles to the session.  Kitt had us doing squat jumps to refresh the brain.
Ruth said “the last two days went as well as they could have gone”.  High praise indeed.
Last night we celebrated at the Mongolian Grill at Serena.  You choose your vegetables and meat (or fish), which is cooked on the spot with flaming fire.
Thank you to all of you who are following the blog and for your wonderful supportive comments.

Monday, January 23, 2017

rich days of learning

From Kitt:
Hi all! I hope this finds you well.

Where did we leave off? So much seems to happen on a daily basis here, it can be easy to miss things.
After our beautiful walk through the hills of Kigali yesterday morning, Kyle, Amélie and I went to the Genocide Memorial in town.  A total of approximately 800,000 – 1,000,000 people died in 100 days in 1994. Over 250,000 people are buried on the museum site. The grounds are a place of remembrance for many visitors who lost loved ones.
The museum displays the history of not only the Rwandan, but also multiple other genocides of modern recorded times. The resounding feeling after visiting is an understanding and acceptance of the past so as to not repeat mistakes in the future.
It was a powerful place to visit.
Amélie joined us in the afternoon to run an oral exam station. Patty ran a simulation where she played an obese patient with placenta previa. (She didn’t eat dessert at dinner tonight).  Kyle and I ran a full OR scenario simulation for PPH The residents had to both manage severe hemorrhage after cesarean section under spinal anesthetic, and then convert to general anesthetic after the patient lost consciousness. Simulation can be stressful and overwhelming, but the residents are quick learners.
At the end of the afteroon session, we were visited by the same Minister with whom Patty and Angela met last Monday. The residents, Paulin, the Dean of Medicine, and the Minister had a great discussion about some of the issues facing the residency program, including, but not limited to, lack of resources and retention of clinical teaching staff. The minister seemed very receptive to their suggestions. Overall, it was a very productive day.
Patty and I are looking forward to going to Butare tomorrow, while Kyle will spend another day here with Amélie before leaving for Butare on Wednesday. Next stop, Essential Pain Management Course!
Kitt

Thursday, January 26, 2017

 

Essential Pain Management Course

With virtually no time to prepare, we ran the Essential Pain Management Course in Butare today.  This is a simple one day course to teach fundamental principles of pain management.
http://fpm.anzca.edu.au/fellows/essential-pain-management
This course was developed by Dr Wayne Morriss, in New Zealand, and Dr. Roger Goucke, in Australia, in 2010.  It has now been offered in over 40 countries around the world.
We had an enthusiastic multidisciplinary group today: nurses, physicians, anesthesia technicians, physiotherapists, surgeons.
Tomorrow we will train half the group to be future EPM instructors to ensure sustainability of the teaching.  Then we are off to Nyungwe Forest…

Thursday, February 2, 2017

 

Open heart

As I get ready to fly back to Canada tonight, I contemplate “what does this all mean?” and “why do I keep coming back?”.  There are no easy answers but the most obvious one is that I have fallen in love with a country and its people.

The experience here is about enormous open heart; people radiate genuine warmth and kindness. It is nearly impossible to reconcile the current condition with the devastation that occurred in 1994. Yet the scars are everywhere, literally and figuratively. I am filled with awe by the culture of forgiveness and the vision for Rwanda to be the best country in Africa.

Nearly all the residents we work with were old enough to have memories of the tragedy but that is changing as each year the average age of the entry class in anesthesia gets younger and younger. Perhaps, even now, some of the younger residents have no personal memories of the genocide. Each year of stability allows more time for healing.

I come back each year for both selfish and altruistic reasons. Who wouldn’t want to miss a little Canadian winter? Rwanda is spectacularly gorgeous and there is truly a culture of “no stresse”. Ultimately, though, there are few things in life as fulfilling as helping people acquire knowledge to heal others.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have found anesthesia as a career and to have this opportunity to guide young people in becoming skilled clinicians and confident teachers.  This is as good as it gets.

I am grateful to all of the CASIEF-University of Rwanda former students who are now leaders: Paulin, Christian, Francoise, Gaston and colleagues. It is wonderful to see them flourish. I am grateful to the current group of residents who show up on time for academic day (having done all the pre-reading) and hungry to learn.  I am grateful to my good friends, Angela, Ruth, and Amélie who travelled a very long way for the Teaching and Learning Course and the Essential Pain Management Course.

But today, I am especially grateful to Kitt and Kyle. They worked their buns off always with good energy and cheer. They rose to the occasion, time after time, to meet our goals and challenges. Teaching in the chaotic ORs for complex cases, designing academic day teaching, running scenarios, helping with resident teaching, keeping me laughing, and nudging me on up some very steep hills on a mountain bike. Thank you Kitt and Kyle. Truly the dream team!

I have not forgotten Michelle, who could not come this year. Michelle, I need you back, my friend.

Lots of love from Kigali,
Patty

Related Posts

Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society
International Education Foundation
455 Danforth Ave, Unit 469
Toronto, ON Canada
M4K 1P1

Connect with CASIEF
Paper-plane Twitter Instagram Youtube Facebook
Join our mailing list

Join our mailing list

*required fields