May 2016

The one-week 1. Intensive Care Course for nurses in intensive care of Ayder Referral Hospital of the University of Mekelle was a great success. It took place in the hospital from April 18^th to April 23th and May 2nd to May 7th. Ayder Hospital is a 400-bed tertiary care hospital for about 8 million people. The university city of Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia Northern Province, has about 300,000 inhabitants.

 

The course was led by the retired anesthetist Dr. Reintraut Burmeister-Rother MD. She is since many years active in teaching intensive care medicine including hands on training for physicians and nurses. During her previous stays in the ICU of Ayder Hospital she had realized, that the performance of the dedicated working nursing staff would benefit very much from a high level course in intensive care .

With the support of the Spanish nurse Teresa Pastor, the German intensive care nurse Doris Balke and the American intensive care nutritionist Dr. Judith Randon MD, this course was a huge success. The Participation of the nurses was very active and none of the young men and women missed even for one hour. The result of the final test with a knowledge increase of 100% up to 200% was the occasion to celebrate this with a opulent lunch in a beautiful traditional Ethiopian restaurant in Downtown Mekelle. This was a good place to handover the certificates to the nurses.

A 2^nd refresher course will be held in January 2017 at Ayder Referral Unversity Hospital Mekelle