Posted by Sushant Wagley, following conversations with Ruma Rajbhandari
Delivery of quality healthcare requires providers to maintain and develop knowledge and skills in clinical practice and performance. Continuing Medical Education (CME) allows medical providers to maintain the knowledge and skills acquired during primary training, while also allowing for the adoption of latest advancements and improvements into their practice. CME is vital in rural Nepal, where many providers are young and still early in their careers. Healthcare providers in these rural locations operate in a resource-limited setting where new technology and developments in the field of medicine are late arrivals. In many cases, the necessary developments never even reach these regions. CME programs in remote settings like Achham foster an educational environment necessary for advancing life-saving medical skills.
Emphasizing the practice of evidence-based medicine, Nyaya Health aims to provide optimal care to its patients. Nyaya Health develops programs and instructions aimed at training and developing the skills of our staff at Bayalpata Hospital. Dr. Ruma Rajbhandari, from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, has been working on expanding Nyaya’s CME program. Using materials developed by The Nick Simons Institute (http://www.nsi.edu.np) and JHPIEGO (http://www.jhpiego.jhu.edu), Dr. Rajbhandari had conducted CME training sessions for the past month.
By engaging in on-going CME, the Nyaya Health clinical staff are better able to provide critical and sometimes life-saving health services to the people of Achham.
Given that maternal mortality rates in Achham are some of the highest in Nepal, Nyaya’s staff must be prepared to treat any complications that arise during pregnancy and delivery. Because of this, Dr. Rajbhandari has begun by focusing CME sessions on obstetrical care, prioritizing this important topic. In the future, many other topics will be covered as well. A detailed description of Dr. Rajbhndari’s work can be found here on Nyaya’s wiki page at http://nyayahealth.pbworks.com/Continuing-Medical-Education.
Nyaya Health will continue to further develop its CME program. Working in collaboration with other medical institutions in Nepal and our international partners, we aim to create and promote a CME program that allows us to train local health personnel to build the health infrastructure of the region. Effective healthcare delivery demands continued and forward-thinking healthcare providers; in order to best provide for the needs of the people of Achham, our priorities must lie first and foremost in providing the necessary training to those who will care for our patients.
