So the Child May Live supports the partnership between Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool and Kanti Children’s Hospital, with many Alder Hey staff contributing to education and training in Nepal. Read some of their stories below.
Hi my name is Louise Campbell (on the left in the photo). I am burns nurse specialist at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. I had the opportunity to travel as a volunteer to Nepal to visit the burns unit in Kanti Children’s hospital. We were a team of two burn surgeons and two nursing staff. On arrival, the first impression was the vast amount of people in the city and crossing the road was quite challenging with the sheer volume of traffic!!
During my time there, we worked alongside the nursing staff on the ward, to share information and to assist with implementing guidelines focusing on procedural pain management and infection control measures. What I did find the most challenging was being out of my comfort zone of my own clinical area and thinking outside the box to utilise what is available to you when carrying out procedures.
I also found the language barrier to be a challenge as, although most of the clinicians could speak English, the majority of the nursing staff did not and I was concerned that they would view us as the foreign nurses coming to tell them what to do.
We were able to overcome this barrier and I am most proud of jointly writing and assisting in the implementation of guidelines to improve the infection control measures that are used when carrying out a dressing procedure and looking at analgesia required to carry out the dressings. I would like to think these little changes have made a big difference as it often a case of taking things back to basics and working from there.
My name is Sam Ellis. I was lucky enough to be part of the Alder Hey team that visited the Kanti Children’s Hospital to help deliver the APLS programme alongside our Kanti colleagues over 3 days, we also donated a mobile transport ventilator and additional equipment.
I spent time on the Children’s Intensive Care Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care to provide education and training for the new ventilator. In such an under resourced country, it was difficult to witness such sick children unable to receive treatment so readily available in the UK that could alter their chances of survival, however it was fantastic to see the newly built paediatric and neonatal intensive care unit which was being prepared to open with much improved resources and facilities which should certainly improve the outcomes of children needing intensive care therapy.
Following our time at the hospital we were fortunate enough to spend some leisure time trekking in the Himalayas which was an unforgettable experience not least because we experienced a small earthquake!…that’s another story!
My name is Ben Lakin. I am an ICU consultant in Alder Hey.
We visited Nepal to help with teaching life support skills and to provide training/education to their Intensive Care Units.
Understanding more about health care in Nepal (and the contribution of different charities) and getting to know such enthusiastic and dedicated healthcare professions was an honour.
We were impressed with just how much the ICU’s achieve with very little resource and it was great to support their Advanced Life Support Course which has saved lives through an emphasis on a structured approach and teamwork in managing a very sick child.
In contrast to some of our colleagues, it was our first trip, and in seeing them building on previous work, it was evident that having clear objectives together with expecting slow and steady progress through mutual trust and establishing close working relationships is needed.
We look forward to visiting again in the future!
