Implementation of an Intensive Surgical Simulation Week for Medical Students in Rwanda.

INTRODUCTION: Simulation-based training often fails to meet the needs of low- and middle-income countries with limited access to high-cost models. We built on an existing surgical simulation curriculum for medical students in Rwanda and assessed students' experience. METHODS: Based on a contextual simulation-based education curriculum that was piloted in 2022, our team designed and delivered an intensive week-long surgical simulation course for medical students. We increased interactive clinical scenarios using high-fidelity mannequins, improved and added benchtop models for training, and incorporated a new postcourse assessment of students' experiences using a survey on the first Kirkpatrick level to determine sessions with the highest utility. Modules included informed consent, preoperative patient preparation, trauma simulations, and procedural skills. The final day focused on integrating and applying skills learned throughout the week in an interactive circuit. RESULTS: Thirty-six students participated in the 5-d simulation course and 24 completed an end of course survey. When asked about their exposure to simulation prior to the course, 20/24 (83%) students reported "a lot" and 4/24 (17%) reported "a little", 24/24 (100%) strongly agreed that simulation is a valuable educational tool and 23/24 (96%) felt that the week enhanced their knowledge and skills to "a great extent". The modules with the highest self-rated level of engagement were the interactive trauma simulations, knot-tying and suturing practice and competition, and a model-based session on cutaneous lesions. The lowest ranked session was the interactive circuit on integrated skills. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a locally-informed and locally-sourced surgical simulation curriculum is feasible and effectively engages medical students in low-income settings.

Increasing access to pediatric surgical care: Assessing district hospital readiness in rural Rwanda.

Introduction/Background: Safe and quality surgery is crucial for child health. In Rwanda, district hospitals serve as primary entry points for pediatric patients needing surgical care. This paper reports on the organizational readiness and facility capacity to provide pediatric surgery in three district hospitals in rural Rwanda. Methods: We administered the Children's Surgical Assessment Tool (CSAT), adapted for a Rwandan district hospital, to assess facility readiness across 5 domains (infrastructure, workforce, service delivery, financing, and training) at three Partners in Health supported district hospitals (Kirehe, Rwinkwavu, and Butaro District Hospitals). We used the Safe Surgery Organizational Readiness Tool (SSORT) to measure perceived individual and team readiness to implement surgical quality improvement interventions across 14 domains. Results: None of the facilities had a dedicated pediatric surgeon, and the most common barriers to pediatric surgery were lack of surgeon (68%), lack of physician anesthesiologists (19%), and inadequate infrastructure (17%). There were gaps in operating and recovery room infrastructure, and information management for pediatric outpatients and referrals. In SSORT interviews (n=47), the highest barriers to increasing pediatric surgery capacity were facility capacity (mean score=2.6 out of 5), psychological safety (median score=3.0 out of 5), and resistance to change (mean score=1.5 out of 5 with 5=no resistance). Conclusions: This study highlights challenges in providing safe and high-quality surgical care to pediatric patients in three rural district hospitals in Rwanda. It underscores the need for targeted interventions to address facility and organizational barriers prior to implementing interventions to expand pediatric surgical capacity.

Non-technical skills training for Nigerian interprofessional surgical teams: a cross-sectional survey.

INTRODUCTION: Non-technical skills (NTS) including communication, teamwork, leadership, situational awareness, and decision making, are essential for enhancing surgical safety. Often perceived as tangential soft skills, NTS are many times not included in formal medical education curricula or continuing medical professional development. We aimed to explore exposure of interprofessional teams in North-Central Nigeria to NTS and ascertain perceived facilitators and barriers to interprofessional training in these skills to enhance surgical safety and inform design of a relevant contextualized curriculum. METHODS: Six health facilities characterised by high surgical volumes in Nigeria's North-Central geopolitical zone were purposively identified. Federal, state, and private university teaching hospitals, non-teaching public and private hospitals, and a not-for-profit health facility were included. A nineteen-item, web-based, cross-sectional survey was distributed to 71 surgical providers, operating room nurses, and anaesthesia providers by snowball sampling through interprofessional surgical team leads from August to November 2021. Data were analysed using Fisher's exact test, proportions, and constant comparative methods for free text responses. RESULTS: Respondents included 17 anaesthesia providers, 21 perioperative nurses, and 29 surgeons and surgical trainees, with a 95.7% survey completion rate. Over 96% had never heard of any NTS for surgery framework useful for variable resource contexts and only 8% had ever received any form of NTS training. Interprofessional teams identified communication and teamwork as the most deficient personal skills (38, 57%), and as the most needed for surgical team improvement (45, 67%). There was a very high demand for NTS training by all surgical team members (64, 96%). The main motivations for training were expectations of resultant improved patient safety and improved interprofessional team dynamics. Week-long, hybrid training courses (with combined in-person and online components) were the preferred format for delivery of NTS education. Factors that would facilitate attendance included a desire for patient safety and self-improvement, while barriers to attendance were conflicts of time, and training costs. CONCLUSIONS: Interprofessional surgical teams in the Nigerian context have a high degree of interest in NTS training, and believe it can improve team dynamics, personal performance, and ultimately patient safety. Implementation of NTS training programs should emphasize interprofessional communication and teamworking.

Simulation-Based Breast Biopsy Training Using a Low-Cost Gelatin-Based Breast Model in Rwanda.

BACKGROUND: An interdisciplinary team of healthcare providers and simulation specialists adopted and modified a protocol for the creation of a low-cost, gelatin-based breast model for teaching ultrasound-guided breast biopsy and assessed first-time user experience. METHODS: An interdisciplinary team of healthcare providers and simulation specialists adopted and modified a protocol for the creation of a low-cost, gelatin-based breast model for teaching ultrasound-guided breast biopsy for approximately $4.40 USD. Components include medical-grade gelatin, Jell-O™, water, olives, and surgical gloves. The model was used to train two cohorts comprising 30 students total during their junior surgical clerkship. The learners' experience and perceptions on the first Kirkpatrick level were evaluated using pre- and post-training surveys. RESULTS: Response rate was 93.3% (n = 28). Only three students had previously completed an ultrasound-guided breast biopsy, and none had prior exposure to simulation-based breast biopsy training. Learners that were confident in performing biopsies under minimal supervision rose from 4 to 75% following the session. All students indicated the session increased their knowledge, and 71% agreed that the model was an anatomically accurate and appropriate substitute to a real human breast. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a low-cost gelatin-based breast model was able to increase student confidence and knowledge in performing ultrasound-guided breast biopsies. This innovative simulation model provides a cost-effective and more accessible means of simulation-based training especially for low- and middle-income settings.

A national perspective on exposure to essential surgical procedures among medical trainees in Nigeria: a cross-sectional survey and recommendations.

BACKGROUND: In sub-Saharan Africa, recent graduates from medical school provide more direct surgical and procedural care to patients than their counterparts from the Global North. Nigeria has no nationally representative data on the procedures performed by trainees before graduation from medical school and their confidence in performing these procedures upon graduation has also not been evaluated. METHODS: We performed an internet-based, cross-sectional survey of recent medical school graduates from 15 accredited Federal, State, and private Nigerian medical schools spanning six geopolitical zones. Essential surgical procedures, bedside interventions and three Bellwether procedures were incorporated into the survey. Self-reported confidence immediately after graduation was calculated and compared using cumulative confidence scores with subgroup analysis of results by type and location of institution. Qualitative analysis of free text recommendations by participants was performed using the constant comparative method in grounded theory. RESULTS: Four hundred ninety-nine recent graduates from 6 geopolitical zones participated, representing 15 out of a total of 44 medical schools in Nigeria. Male to female ratio was 2:1, and most respondents (59%) graduated from Federal institutions. Students had greatest practical mean exposure to bedside procedures like intravenous access and passing urethral foley catheters and were most confident performing these. Less than 23% had performed over 10 of any of the assessed procedures. They had least exposures to chest tube insertion (0.24/person), caesarean Sect. (0.12/person), and laparotomy (0.09/person). Recent graduates from Federal institutions had less procedural exposure in urethral catheterization (p < 0.001), reduction (p = 0.035), and debridement (p < 0.035). Respondents that studied in the underserved North-East and North-West performed the highest median number of procedures prior to graduation. Cumulative confidence scores were low across all graduates (maximum 25/60), but highest in graduates from Northern Nigeria and private institutions. Graduates recommended prioritizing medical students over senior trainees, using simulation-based training and constructive individualized non-toxic feedback from faculty. CONCLUSION: Nigerian medical students have poor exposure to procedures and low confidence in performing basic procedures after graduation. More attention should be placed on training for essential surgeries and procedures in medical schools.

Comparison of Unyvero P55 Pneumonia Cartridge, in-house PCR and culture for the identification of respiratory pathogens and antibiotic resistance in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids in the critical care setting.

Faster respiratory pathogen detection and antibiotic resistance identification are important in critical care due to the severity of illness, significant prior antibiotic exposure and infection control implications. Our objective was to compare the performance of the commercial Unyvero P55 Pneumonia Cartridge (Curetis AG) with routine bacterial culture methods and in-house bacterial multiplex real-time PCR assays. Seventy-four bronchoalveolar lavage specimens from patients admitted to a Scottish intensive care unit (ICU) over a 33-month period were tested prospectively by routine culture and viral PCR and retrospectively by Unyvero P55 and in-house bacterial PCR. Sensitivity/specificity was 56.9%/58.5% and 63.2%/54.8% for the Unyvero P55 and in-house bacterial PCR panels respectively; sensitivity for in-panel targets was 63.5 and 83.7% respectively. Additional organisms were detected by Unyvero P55 and in-house bacterial PCR panels in 16.2% specimens. Antibiotics were changed on the basis of routine test results in 48.3% cases; of these, true-positive or true-negative results would have been obtained earlier by Unyvero P55 or in-house bacterial PCR panel in 15 (53.6%) and 17 (60.7%) cases respectively. However, a false-negative molecular test result may have been acted upon in six (21.4%) cases with either assay. Sensitivity/specificity of Unyvero P55 antibiotic resistance detection was 18.8%/94.9% respectively. Molecular testing identified a number of respiratory pathogens in this patient cohort that were not grown in culture, but resistance detection was not a reliable tool for faster antibiotic modification. In their current set-up, molecular tests may only have benefit as additional tests in the ICU pneumonia setting.

Adaptation and validation of the Children's Surgical Assessment Tool for Rwandan district hospitals.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Paediatric surgical care is a critical component of child health and basic universal health coverage and therefore should be included in comprehensive evaluations of surgical capacity. This study adapted and validated the Children's Surgical Assessment Tool (CSAT), a tool developed for district and tertiary hospitals in Nigeria to evaluate hospital infrastructure, workforce, service delivery, financing, and training capacity for paediatric surgery, for use in district hospitals in Rwanda. METHODS: We used a three-round modified Delphi process to adapt the CSAT to the Rwandan context. An expert panel of surgeons, anaesthesiologists, paediatricians, and health systems strengthening experts were invited to participate based on their experience with paediatric surgical or anaesthetic care at district hospitals or with health systems strengthening in the Rwandan context. We used the Content Validity Index to validate the final tool. RESULTS: The adapted tool had a final score of 0.84 on the Content Validity Index, indicating a high level of agreement among the expert panel. The final tool comprised 171 items across five domains: facility characteristics, service delivery, workforce, financing, and training/research. CONCLUSION: The adapted CSAT is appropriate for use in district hospitals in Rwanda to evaluate the capacity for paediatric surgery. This study provides a framework for adapting and validating a comprehensive paediatric surgical assessment tool to local contexts in LMICs and used in similar settings in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Implementation of Simulation-Based Learning for Training Undergraduate Medical Students in Essential Surgical Care Across Sub-Saharan Africa: a Scoping Review.

Much surgery in sub-Saharan Africa is provided by non-specialists who lack postgraduate surgical training. These can benefit from simulation-based learning (SBL) for essential surgery. Whilst SBL in high-income contexts, and for training surgical specialists, has been explored, SBL for surgical training during undergraduate medical education needs to be better defined. From 26 studies, we identify gaps in application of simulation to African undergraduate surgical education, including lack of published SBL for most (65%) World Bank-defined essential operations. Most SBL is recent (2017-2021), unsustained, occurs in Eastern Africa (78%), and can be enriched by improving content, participant spread, and collaborations.

Developing a Surgical Simulation Curriculum for the Rwandan Context.

OBJECTIVE: We report on the development and implementation of a surgical simulation curriculum for undergraduate medical students in rural Rwanda. DESIGN: This is a narrative report on the development of scenario and procedure-based content for a junior surgical clerkship simulation curriculum by an interdisciplinary team of simulation specialists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, medical educators, and medical students. SETTING: University of Global Health Equity, a new medical school located in Butaro, Rwanda. PARTICIPANTS: Participants in this study consist of simulation and surgical educators, surgeons, anesthesiologists, research fellows and University of Global Health Equity medical students enrolled in the junior surgery clerkship. RESULTS: The simulation training schedule was designed to begin with a 17-session simulation-intensive week, followed by 8 sessions spread over the 11-week clerkship. These sessions combined the use of high-fidelity mannequins with improvised, bench-top surgical simulators like the GlobalSurgBox, and low-cost gelatin-based models to effectively replace resource intensive options. CONCLUSIONS: Emphasis on contextualized content generation, low-cost application, and interdisciplinary design of simulation curricula for low-income settings is essential. The impact of this curriculum on students' knowledge and skill acquisition is being assessed in an ongoing fashion as a substrate for iterative improvement.

Determining Critical Topics for Undergraduate Surgical Education in Rwanda: Results of a Modified Delphi Process and a Consensus Conference.

Background Developing a contextually appropriate curriculum is critical to train physicians who can address surgical challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. An innovative modified Delphi process was used to identify contextually optimized curricular content to meet sub-Saharan Africa and Rwanda's surgical needs. Methods Participants were surgeons from East, Central, Southern, and West Africa and general practitioners with surgical experience. Delphi participants excluded or prioritized surgical topic areas generated from extensive grey and formal literature review. Surgical educators first screened and condensed identified topics. Round 1 screened and prioritized identified topics, with a 75% consensus cut-off based on the content validity index and a prioritization score. Topics that reached consensus were screened again in round 2 and re-prioritized, following controlled feedback. Frequencies for aggregate prioritization scores, experts in agreement, item-level content validity index, universal agreement and scale-level content validity index based on the average method (S-CVI/Ave) using proportion relevance, and intra-class correlation (ICC) (based on a mean-rating, consistency, two-way mixed-effects model) were performed. We also used arithmetic mean values and modal frequency. Cronbach's Alpha was also calculated to ascertain reliability. Results were validated through a multi-institution consensus conference attended by Rwanda-based surgical specialists, general practitioners, medical students, surgical educators, and surgical association representatives using an inclusive, participatory, collaborative, agreement-seeking, and cooperative, a priori consensus decision-making model. Results Two-hundred and sixty-seven broad surgical content areas were identified through the initial round and presented to experts. In round 2, a total of 247 (92%) content areas reached 75% consensus among 31 experts. Topics that did not achieve consensus consisted broadly of small intestinal malignancies, rare hepatobiliary pathologies, and transplantation. In the final round, 99.6% of content areas reached 75% consensus among 31 experts. The highest prioritization was on wound healing, fluid and electrolyte management, and appendicitis, followed by metabolic response, infection, preoperative preparation, antibiotics, small bowel obstruction and perforation, breast infection, acute urinary retention, testicular torsion, hemorrhoids, and surgical ethics. Overall, the consistency and average agreement between panel experts was strong. ICC was 0.856 (95% CI: 0.83-0.87). Cronbach's Alpha for round 2 was very strong (0.985, 95% CI: 0.976-0.991) and higher than round 1, demonstrating strong reliability. All 246 topics from round 4 were verbally accepted by 40 participants in open forum discussions during the consensus conference. Conclusions A modified Delphi process and consensus were able to identify essential topics to be included within a highly contextualized, locally driven surgical clerkship curriculum delivered in rural Rwanda. Other contexts can use similar processes to develop relevant curricula.

A review on the biological, epidemiological, and statistical relevance of COVID-19 paired with air pollution.

This narrative review paper is aimed to critically evaluate recent studies of the associations between air pollution and the outcomes in the COVID-19 pandemic. The main air pollutants we have considered are carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ground-level ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). We, specifically, evaluated the influences of these pollutants, both individually and collaboratively, across various geographic areas and exposure windows. We further reviewed the proposed biological mechanisms underlying the association between air pollution and COVID-19. Ultimately, we aim to inform policy and public health practice regarding the implications of COVID-19 and air pollution.