PENTP Vanuatu
December 2019
PENTP July 2019 Recap - Full Article Here
In July the first PENTP training for Vanuatu was held. The majority of nurses came from the emergency department at Port Vila Central Hospital (VCH) - the country’s main referral centre. There were also nurses from Santo, Tanna and Malekula Islands, as well as two clinic nurses from Efate, and two lecturers from the School of Nursing. In recognition of the extreme shortage of nurses at VCH and the difficulty of rostering so many nurses from ED to attend the course, we were very lucky to be joined by the fabulous Philippe Emille, a Ni Van nurse working in ED at Auckland Hospital. MFAT flew Philippe across from NZ to work at VCH and support the emergency department while so many nurses were rostered off attending the course. He also provided invaluable logistical assistance, particularly to the Outer Islands nurses.
The course was very successful, with an impressive four nurses attaining 100% in the written exam. As part of a wider strategy of capacity building to improve emergency care at VCH, it was recommended that a second group of nurses also receive PENTP training, and this was undertaken in Dec 19.
In spare time around the course, a four hour training session in assessment principles and BLS was also provided to a very enthusiastic group of third year nursing students at the Vanuatu School of Nursing.
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December PENTP Course
This capacity building being undertaken at VCH aims to both strengthen the culture of emergency nursing as a specialty and also more generally improve the care of patients presenting with acute or life-threatening problems in any area of the hospital.
For the second PENTP nurses were not only drawn from the emergency department, but also from other wards, including; maternity, paediatrics, medical, and outpatients. There were also nurses from Tanna and Malekula, a clinic nurse from North Efate, and a nurse from the military. We were lucky to have the involvement of the fabulous Leigh Elton, the AVI Educator who will be spending the next 12 months supporting VCH ED. Leigh is a Kiwi with a background in paediatrics who has been most recently working in Melbourne but has also worked remotely in Australia so has a wide range of experience that will be very helpful in supporting the nurses at VCH. Philippe joined us once more for the graduation ceremony.
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The participants of the December course set a very high standard, being the most punctual of any group EVER, and working very hard to also get the most improved of any group, with some participants improving their pre and post test scores by over 30%. Quite a few of the participants had small children and they juggled the demands of work, parenting and studying with support from their families, who should feel very proud.
Not only were they excellent nurses, there were also a few extra skills discovered, including Lina’s prowess with a pool cue and the musical ability of Ken, who played keyboard for the The Stethoscopes at the Inaugural VCH Ball!
Now that there is a strong core group of PENTP graduates it is a good time to look at sustainability. A short Train-the-Trainer course is in the pipeline so that a group of PENTP leaders can train their nursing colleagues at VCH, clinics, the nursing school and Outer Islands in a range of important frontline skills; recognition of unstable or deteriorating patients, ABCDE assessment and intervention and safe handover using IBAR.
Watch this space as we roll out the new program in May……