QUEBEC-SENEGAL COOPERATION
Summary
With financial support from the Government of Quebec, the Centre for Global Surgery (CGS), in close collaboration with the Gaston Berger University (GBU) of Saint-Louis in Senegal, has contributed to the improvement of Senegal's surgical capacity through the deployment of the Trauma and Disaster Team Response (TDTR) course in French.
The TDTR course trained 46 Senegalese health professionals in the management of injured patients. To facilitate the number of participants from different regions of Senegal, the course included a hybrid model with a combination of two components: one online (didactic lectures) and one in-person (skills stations, team exercises, and simulation).
The program included the following activities:
Organization of several virtual planning meetings, with CGS and GBU, for the deployment of the course.
Development of the online component of the course in French and its availability in a virtual platform.
Deployment of the pilot hybrid course to 46 Senegalese health professionals in Saint-Louis.
Preliminary evaluation of the TDTR hybrid course by the 46 newly trained professionals to identify potential areas for improvement.
RESULTS
On 17, 20- 21 February 2023, The CGS team delivered the course to 11 Senegalese surgeons to become course instructors, as well as to 35 participants, including 14 surgeons, 9 physicians, 6 nurses, 5 medical students, and 1 doctoral student.
The TDTR hybrid course was highly effective in enhancing the knowledge of health professionals in the management of injured patients in Senegal -per the course evaluations completed by the participants. The expertise gained by the 46 Senegalese participants will eventually support the development of a mature and effective trauma system in the country.
Following the success of this training, we aim to extend this collaboration with our Senegalese partner through the following initiatives:
Transition to an independent deployment of the TDTR course -by local leaders already trained- and replicate it twice a year, including the different regions of Senegal and having a greater diversity of frontline health workers.
Work on creating a locally relevant and long-lasting trauma registry to identify gaps and support efforts to strengthen Senegalese healthcare systems.
Develop supplemental materials for the TDTR course, including videos for skill stations such as airway and cricothyrotomy.
Finally, the CGS acknowledges and thanks our collaborators -Canadian healthcare professionals- who have shared their knowledge and expertise in the online component of the TDTR course. The CGS appreciates their valuable and voluntary participation to make the TDTR course available also in French.
