Sim Centre Opening: crisp and fresh

We visited King Faisal Hospital today. The cleanliness and sense of order is striking: freshly painted operating theatres, first-rate anesthesia equipment, neatly wrapped supplies and sevoflurane vapourizers. It puts the VG to shame, so crisp and fresh. The residents are fortunate to have exposure to anesthesia in this high functioning environment.

The Rwandan anesthesia leads and we, from CASIEF, had a lengthy meeting with the Minister of Health to discuss vitally important issues around retention of anesthesiologists in Rwanda. How utterly disheartening it must be for our Rwandan colleagues to nurture trainees through medical school and residency only to have them leave the country for greener pastures. As there are so few anesthesiologists, those who remain have an onerous clinical load and little time for teaching. Students look at the anesthesia lifestyle and choose other specialties. With a critical mass of trainees, the lifestyle would be better and anesthesia would be more attractive. But how to get there? That is our challenge.

Our partners clearly value the contribution by CASIEF. We have heard over and over that the CASIEF model is the most sustainable one among the various partnerships.

This evening Michelle invited the nurses for a debriefing discussion one year after her peri-operative nursing course. It must have been rewarding for her to hear of improved confidence, passion for learning and greater team communication.

Dylan and Tristan have gone out on the town with a surgeon they met on Twitter. I took a taxi back to our apartment passing through the lively nightlife of Nyamirambo. The streets are full of people, shops are open late and motos weave in and out of traffic. It is a hive of activity, a city that never sleeps. The music goes on when darkness falls and is turned off as the morning church bells ring.

Tristan and Derek are going off for gorilla trekking this weekend. Dylan leaves tomorrow night after a very full week.