Lucy Wilks1, Andrew Leather2, Peter Matthew George3, Thaim Bay Kamara4. 1. King's College, London, United Kingdom. 2. King's Centre for Global Health, King's College London, United Kingdom. 3. Connaught Hospital, Freetown, Sierra Leone. 4. College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The critical shortage of human resources for healthcare falls most heavily on sub-Saharan nations such as Sierra Leone, where such workforce deficits have grave impacts on its burden of surgical disease. An important aspect in retention and development of the workforce is training. This study focuses on postgraduate surgical training (formal and short course) and perceptions of opportunities, challenges and aspirations, in a country where more than half of surgical procedures are performed by medical officers. METHODS: The study presents findings from 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with medical officers by the primary investigator in Sierra Leone between April and June 2017. Each interview was transcribed alongside an introspective reflexive journal to acknowledge and account for researcher biases. RESULTS: Two interviewees had accessed postgraduate surgical training and 10 (83%) had accessed short course surgically relevant training. The number of short courses accessed grew higher the more recently the medical officers had graduated. Supervision, short length and international standards were the most appreciated aspects of short training courses. Some medical officers perceived the formal postgraduate surgical training programme to be ill-equipped, doubting its credibility. This demotivated some from applying. CONCLUSIONS: Training is an essential aspect of developing an adequate surgical workforce. Faith must be restored in the capabilities of Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and Sanitation to provide adequate and sustainable training. This study advocates for the use of short courses to restore this faith and the expansion of postgraduate surgical training to the districts through developing a regional teaching complex to provide short courses and eventually formal postgraduate training in the future.
BACKGROUND: The critical shortage of human resources for healthcare falls most heavily on sub-Saharan nations such as Sierra Leone, where such workforce deficits have grave impacts on its burden of surgical disease. An important aspect in retention and development of the workforce is training. This study focuses on postgraduate surgical training (formal and short course) and perceptions of opportunities, challenges and aspirations, in a country where more than half of surgical procedures are performed by medical officers. METHODS: The study presents findings from 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with medical officers by the primary investigator in Sierra Leone between April and June 2017. Each interview was transcribed alongside an introspective reflexive journal to acknowledge and account for researcher biases. RESULTS: Two interviewees had accessed postgraduate surgical training and 10 (83%) had accessed short course surgically relevant training. The number of short courses accessed grew higher the more recently the medical officers had graduated. Supervision, short length and international standards were the most appreciated aspects of short training courses. Some medical officers perceived the formal postgraduate surgical training programme to be ill-equipped, doubting its credibility. This demotivated some from applying. CONCLUSIONS: Training is an essential aspect of developing an adequate surgical workforce. Faith must be restored in the capabilities of Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and Sanitation to provide adequate and sustainable training. This study advocates for the use of short courses to restore this faith and the expansion of postgraduate surgical training to the districts through developing a regional teaching complex to provide short courses and eventually formal postgraduate training in the future.
Authors: Guglielmo Mantica; Pietro Fransvea; Francesco Virdis; Timothy C Hardcastle; Hilgard Ackermann; Carlo Terrone; Gianluca Costa; André Van der Merwe; Genoveffa Balducci; Elmin Steyn Journal: World J Surg Date: 2019-09 Impact factor: 3.352
Authors: Juul Bakker; A J van Duinen; Wouter W E Nolet; Peter Mboma; Tamba Sam; Ankie van den Broek; Maaike Flinkenflögel; Andreas Gjøra; Barbro Lindheim-Minde; Samuel Kamanda; Alimamy P Koroma; H A Bolkan Journal: BMJ Open Date: 2021-12-21 Impact factor: 2.692