HopeCore welcomes volunteers: clinical training

MedTreks is a team of Medical volunteers to strengthen the global health workforce locally and internationally. Village HopeCore International, Kenya (HopeCore) has the privilege to partner with MedTreks International, formed by Dr Phil Rasori over 20years ago. Through Dr Rasori, a team of MedTreks Volunteers visit Village HopeCore International under the leadership of Ariane Rasori for not less than a week, twice a year.

The MedTreks team arrived in Chogoria on 8th August and settled at Snow Peak Hotel for accommodation. The HopeCore team joyfully received them. During their stay, the MedTreks team did capacity building to HopeCore staff on different topics. This report highlights all the activities conducted with the MedTreks team in the week the whole team was in Chogoria and the extended period for two of the team members, Jan and Debi.

TRAINING

On 9th August, the clinical team was trained on leadership during COVID -19 by Jan and Debbie. Among the areas covered were leadership traits, making tough decisions during COVID 19 season, and initiatives by different government leaders when the first COVID -19 case was announced. The team was also trained on ectopic pregnancy by Melanie. The areas covered on this topic were the definition of ectopic pregnancy, warning signs, how to manage ectopic pregnancy and life experiences.

In the afternoon, the whole public health team was trained on Integrated community case management by Winnie. The areas covered under this topic were history taking, danger signs in under-five children, pneumonia, and diarrhoea. The team was also privileged to watch a video on identifying a child with a chest in drawing, one of the danger signs in children.

On 10th August, the clinical team went through helping mothers and babies survive pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. The team was trained on how to provide respectful care to women and their,families; communication with the healthcare team, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, assessing blood pressure, urine for protein. Additional topics were danger signs and convulsions, laboratory tests, confirming gestational age and how to manage pre-eclampsia and eclampsia.

On 11th August, the team did some practical’s on assessing blood pressure and administering medication to the pre-eclamptic and eclamptic patients. The team members were then tested on what they had learnt during the Pre-eclampsia and Eclampsia training.

On 16th August, Debi and Jan came back to Chogoria after a one-week trip. They were able to train the rest of the Hopecore staff on leadership. They also taught the clinical team on Hypertension. The areas covered under Hypertension were; definition of Hypertension, causes, risk factors, signs and symptoms, management of Hypertension, and complications.

VILLAGE-BASED MATERNAL CHILD HEALTH CLINIC(VBMCH)

On 12th August, the team visited Kamwangu village for MCH. They observed how the Community Health Officers delivered health education. Some of the health topics covered were family planning, nutrition and Hypertension. They also participated in growth monitoring, vitamin A distribution and deworming, then joined the clinical team to manage under-five children with various health conditions.

SCHOOL HEALTH                 

On 13th August, the team visited M’ekorani primary school. They observed the HopeCore team deliver sexual reproductive health and eye care education to students during this visit. They also participated in nets distribution, deworming school-going children, and screening for grade one to four pupils.

DONATION IN-KIND

MedTreks team donated several items to HopeCore as per the list below.  These items will go a long way in supporting the work of HopeCore in delivering impactful health services to the community.

The team donated 7 Digital Thermometers, two bags of Valve masks, 12 fig scrubs, 1 laboratory coat,6 T-shirts, 6 flash drives, 1 BP machine, 2 drug Guides, 1 Covid 19 Test Kit, 6 KN95 Masks, sanitisers and 3 packets of Gauzes. 

Thanks to the team for the continued collaboration with Village HopeCore International. 

Twice every year, HopeCore hosts the Medtreks medical team in a collaborative community and global health seminar. The week is full of health education, clinical skills, training, and knowledge exchange between the two teams, HopeCore and Medtreks. The medtreks mentorship program sponsors health education and training for the health team at HopeCore.

In 2020 the MedTreks team did not manage to make their second visit to Kenya due to the COVID 19 travel restrictions but we continued to support HopeCore’s Public Health team through virtual training. We are excited that a team of 7 MedTreks volunteers is making a visit to Village HopeCore in August 2021. During this visit the team shall:

ü  Conduct a health fair/outreach event for community vision screening and Join the Public Health team in training Community Health Volunteers.

ü  Train 35 HopeCore Public Health staff on hypertension

ü  Train program managers/Coordinators on Leadership.

ü  Train 8 clinical staff on various health topics

Additionally, the MedTreks team shall donate medical equipment to HopeCore’s Community Clinic and provide clinical scrubs donated by FIGs to Village HopeCore.

Links:

• MedTreks Web