Providing Palliative Care in Kenya

Jambo !

I just returned from Eldoret after five months as part of a Fulbright Scholars program. It was an incredible experience and I am very appreciative of the warm welcome from the members of the Family Medicine Department at Moi University. They have shown incredible dedication to advancing Palliative Medicine in Kenya.

The most exciting news is the Higher Diploma course for Clinical Officers which is in full swing. We have seven bright and dedicated students who began the course in October. They are now rotating through the various clinical services which will comprise the majority of their 18 month training. Drs. Hussein Elias and Solomon Sindano and the palliative care team are doing much of the clinical teaching, and a number of palliative care specialists living in Kenya and the US are providing virtual lectures. The students have faced a number of challenging cases and I was impressed on the thoughtful way they considered how best to help their patients. Before I left Kenya we all went out to lunch. They clearly have a good sense of humor and like all students I know, a very hardy appetite.

A major goal for my Fulbright was to help the Family Medicine Department develop a curriculum for physicians wishing to become specialists in Palliative Medicine. This will be a two year fellowship with the majority of time spent in direct patient care. The curriculum has undergone initial review at the Moi School of Medicine and will now go up the chain including reviews by Kenyan accreditation bodies. This curriculum will be the first board certified Palliative Medicine program in Kenya and aligns with the recently released Ministry of Health ten-year plan for improving palliative care.

The challenge for the initial program will be finding students who can afford to participate. Unlike the US, where fellowships are paid positions, specialty training in Kenya requires the trainee to pay tuition.  Moreover, the fellowship is full-time so the physicians will not be earning income during their training. For the two year program, each fellows is expected to pay 8,000 US dollars in tuition. The goal for our first class will be 4 fellows, and we are hoping to raise funds to provide scholarships that cover the majority of the tuition. We were able to provide partial support for the clinical officers in our Higher Diploma course, and it will be important to assist our physician trainees as well. A number of physicians in Kenya have already expressed interest and we hope, with help from individuals like yourselves, we will have our first class enrolled by January 2023.  

While national and international agencies are advocating for palliative care, only by training health care workers will we improve the quality of life for those with life-limiting illness. We need your help in helping train physician specialists and any support you can provide to further this new effort is always greatly appreciated.

Sincerely, 

Ken