CNIS – COURSE LIST

course-listOur mission is simple – Canadian volunteer doctors and nurses share their surgical and obstetrical expertise to African healthcare students, providing them with practical and essential skills that will save lives in their communities. As part of our program, we train local instructors so that we build capacity for the future and create self-sufficiency – we train the future trainers.

The need for enhanced skills training and addressing the shortfall in quality of healthcare in low-resource countries is the focus. Specifically, the CNIS courses provide hands-on skills training for local health officers –Clinical Officers (COs), Assistant Medical Officers (AMOs) and nurse midwives. The skills training provided is not included in the students’ regular curriculum. These critically important courses are taught in supervised settings in the skills labs and operating rooms.

What are our outcomes? To date we have trained 760 African doctors as instructors in our course curriculum. These doctors, with assistance from the Canadian volunteer surgeons, obstetricians and nurses, have trained over 25,000 healthcare personnel.

Our courses are unique and specifically designed for the needs and conditions of sub-Saharan Africa. Our volunteer surgeons, obstetricians, and nurses are talented and incredibly generous as they impart their skills and knowledge to the healthcare students. And our African partners are keen participants – learning, adapting and acquiring knowledge and skills that will remain with them; in their country – saving lives in their communities.

1. FUNDAMENTAL INTERVENTIONS, REFERRAL AND SAFE TRANSFER (FIRST)

(Clinical Officers, Nurses)

THE PURPOSE– The purpose of the course is to enable health officers to prepare appropriate priority management plans for their patients and to obtain fundamental skills in front line, basic surgical care. In many cases, patients die because of the lack of skills necessary to assess patients to determine who needs priority referral and prepare patients for safe transfer. Learn More /

2. ESSENTIAL SURGICAL SKILLS® (ESS)

(Medical Students, Assistant Medical Officers)

THE PURPOSE– The purpose of the Essential Surgical Skills course is to put into the hands of primary care providers working in low-income regions a standard set of life saving surgical skills for emergencies that such clinicians face frequently. Participants are taught 40 life-saving surgical techniques that will enable them to save countless lives in their communities. Learn More /

3. STRUCTURED OPERATIVE OBSTETRICS (SOO)

(Assistant Medical Officers)

THE PURPOSE – The SOO course is utilized in sub-Saharan Africa to improve the management, technical and surgical skills needed to perform a C/Section as well as other advanced obstetrical procedures. One in twenty-two women die a maternal death annually in sub-Saharan Africa. Pregnancy complications cannot always be predicted, however they can be handled effectively if the knowledge is provided. Learn More /

4. SAFE SURGERY SAVES LIVES (SSSL)

(Perioperative Nurses)

THE PURPOSE – Building on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative, this CNIS course introduces, reviews, and reinforces the idea of a culture of safety, which the perioperative nurse participants can achieve within the operating rooms. Learn More

ADDITIONAL CLINICAL COURSES:

5. ESSENTIAL OSTEOMYLITIS MANAGEMENT

THE PURPOSE – the object of this course is to train medical officers at the district level in the essential surgical techniques necessary to control musculoskeletal infection and prevent serious disabling impairment. Septic conditions of all types are on the increase and common in lower income countries. Bones and joints are frequently involved in children resulting in osteomyelitis and septic arthritis. In tropical communities infection within muscle is uniquely prevalent. It is the responsibility of medical officers at the district level to treat musculoskeletal infections as early as possible.

6. ESSENTIAL BURN MANAGEMENT

THE PURPOSE – to provide the knowledge base, technical skills and rationale to create effective and competent burn teams in low resource centers. Each team, comprised of 4-5 members, should have a common baseline knowledge level and know their part in the performance of specific procedures and understand the need for team management of the burn injury patient.

7. STRUCTURED HERNIA REPAIR

THE PURPOSE – to provide training for the non-surgeon workforce to competently manage and surgically repair selected groin herniae. This training is standardized, rigorous and certifiable by the national medical authority.

8. TRAUMATIC BRAIN AND SPINE INJURY

THE PURPOSE – to prepare clinicians to timely and adequately manage the patient with an acute head injury or cervical spine injury and to intervene appropriately and competently.

ADDITIONAL NON-CLINICAL COURSES/ACTIVITIES:

9. LIFE SKILLS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

THE PURPOSE – to provide training for the non-surgeon workforce to competently manage and surgically repair selected groin herniae. This training is standardized, rigorous and certifiable by the national medical authority.

10. INJURY EPIDEMIOLOGY FOR AFRICA

THE PURPOSE – to collect data on trauma and violence recorded by hospital emergency departments and to collect data on deadly road accidents recorded by police departments. Analyzing the data leads to recommendations regarding the reduction in trauma and violence for the consideration of various stakeholders.

11. THE PLACE OF SURGERY IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

THE PURPOSE – a workshop that affords a unique opportunity to profile the role that surgical care plays in health care and development globally. Topics to be discussed include: the current status of surgical care needs globally, the principles of international surgical-care development, and opportunities for involvement. Although the concepts discussed will apply globally, the primary mandate of the CNIS is Africa, and it will be from this continent that illustrations will be drawn.