The Improving Perioperative Anesthesia Care and Training in Africa (ImPACT Africa) program addresses the critical need for safe surgery by training local anesthesia providers and building educational capacity of local institutions. Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) faculty members, Marie Martin and Elizabeth Rose, along with other VIGH staff and student collaborators, have partnered with ImPACT Africa leaders to provide education consulting and develop new courses.
In 2017, our team developed a digital course in Research Methodology. This course was initially designed to be used in a flipped classroom model for trainees in ImPACT Africa’s Kenya Registered Nurse Anesthetist program. The course has since been used by other training groups, including surgery residents and anesthesiologists. The course is structured around seven modules on research development and dissemination and course materials include 35 engaging, didactic videos, supplemental articles, and datasets for practice analyzing data. The digital nature of the course allows for it to be utilized in a classroom structure or as independent learning modules to refresh knowledge on research methodology.
In 2020, our team was invited to design a faculty development program for early career anesthesiologists in Ethiopia. The Training of the Trainers (ToT) Course for Physician Anesthesia Educators was developed to enhance knowledge and skills in teaching, leading, and mentoring among faculty trainees. The course includes eleven modules on theories, methods, and best practices. These modules were taught online synchronously via Zoom. The course was developed in a train-the-trainer model so that trainees could become future trainers. After the conclusion of the course in Ethiopia, trainees facilitated the course in Tanzania. Plans are underway for future courses that will be taught by these groups of trainees.
