In a small community hospital like Bwindi, a team of clinicians well trained in the care of the newborn infant and actively cascading that information and those skills to their peers significantly strengthens the overall care of babies. The goal of all of us involved with this project is, of course, to bring down the neonatal mortality rate because too many babies are still dying in their first month of life. This is a theme dear to the heart of the Child Health Matters charity (Child Health Matters — Health, dignity and opportunity for South-West Uganda) who are on-going funders for the work that NICHE does in south west Uganda.
There is a nursing college attached to Bwindi Community Hospital and the NCC has been integrated into the final year students’ curriculum. Elizabeth writes: it’s a local arrangement we have in Bwindi that before the final students complete their course then they have had this training. Otherwise it’s something to push for the nursing council to consider because it’s very helpful and life changing. The curriculum has in it resuscitation but before they were supported by an onsite paediatrician on different drills.
Bwindi does not always have a resident paediatrician so the local NCC instructors here play a vital part in training up nursing students who will go all over Uganda to work.