Applying first aid to infants before taken to hospital would save their lives especially to those with less access to health centers. In this respect the Belgian Development Cooperation (BTC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health is training pediatric nurses on how to deal with emergency cases.
Despite the fact the nurses should be aware of first aid skills, the lessons builds their capacity particularly in attending to patients in rural areas. Another advantage is that while in the field they can use medical equipments for instance to conduct minor surgeries.
The 30 trainees are from Kibagabaga and Muhima hospitals which deal with the majority of pediatric cases in both the city and outskirts.
Commenting on the efficiency of the training, Samuel Van Steirteghem a pediatric expert from BTC noted that the same skills would also be applied to teenagers.
Steirteghem further pointed out that they also intend to train more in first aid skills as a way to reduce infant mortality. In this regard more capacity building will be conducted to physicians in various disciplines.
Dr Anaclat Ngabonziza who’s among the trainees from Muhima hospital highlighted that the lessons would improve his attendance to patients. “We will now do our best to ensure that babies in critical conditions are stabilized before being admitted,” he remarked.
He further advised parents to rush their kids to hospital whenever they got sick since negligence was among the reasons that complicate the infants’ health conditions.
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