By Kenneth Cornetta | Project Leader
Jambo!!
I've been in Eldoret the past 2 weeks and it's be busy, productive and inspiring!
Dr. Hussein Elias and I prepared then administering the end of year 1 exams for our Clinical Officers. As some of you know, we have created the first degree program in palliative care for clinical officers. Clinical officers are similar to physician assistance in the US. The national accreditation board in Kenya will recognize our graduates as specialists in palliative care (a first in Kenya!!). We have 7 talented students and I saw how much they have learned, particularly during their oral exam. They were able to assess symptoms but also conduct challenging conversations with compassion. True palliative care clinicians! They have 6 months left in their training and are now going out to rural hospital and inpatient hospices. They must also complete a research project. They will be busy but are clearly up to the task.
Looking at the number of patients seen by the hospitals' palliative care team, the numbers increased almost 50 % since our students started. This was an unexpected and wonderful outcome of our clinical training program. The students were embedded in the hospital's medical, surgical, and pediatrics teams which led to identification then facilitation of palliative care services. Pediatrics saw the greatest increase. Clearly, our 7 student made a significant contibution to clinical care in the hospital.
We will be advertising for the next class of clinical officers and providing scholarships is very important. As the Holidays approach, please consider helping us raise funds to assist our next class of trainees. Many of our students have families and must leave their jobs to attend the training. Any help to defray the tuition is appreciated.
We are wrapping up to research projects and our curriculum for a physician fellowship in palliative medicine is making it's way through the university system. More to come on the next update.
As always, thank you very much for your support!!
Ken
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
