For the health system to thrive, health workers must be fit to be able to carry out their duties effectively and safely. To help achieve this goal, we train health workers in the area of infection prevention and control (IPC).
We spent 3 days building the IPC capacity of doctors, nurses and hygienists from Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) to ensure they can detect, prevent and contain infections like Lassa fever and coronavirus.
Most of the participants in our training program were from the Infectious Disease Unit at LUTH because they are the frontline health workers who face an increased risk as they have to manage various infectious diseases such as yellow fever, dengue and monkeypox.
We trained 41 key staff (doctors, nurses and hygienists) from various departments/units using a mix of case studies, quizzes, group activities, worksheets, simulations, demonstrations and practical sessions.
Some of the topics covered during the 3 days included microbiology 101, cleaning, disinfection and sterilization, the chain of infection transmission and waste management among others.
In all, the training was a success. We were able to significantly increase knowledge of proper risk assessment and how to implement IPC practices and the trained health workers made commitments to train their colleagues to ensure the knowledge of IPC in the hospital increases further.
