More Exciting Opportunities to Get Invovled

Welbodi Partnership has several key positions it is hiring for. If you or anyone you know would like to make a difference in Sierra Leone first hand send an application today! 

The positions available are:

Operations Manager

IPC Mentor (2 positions available)

Project Manager for Hospital Improvments

WASH Engineer 

 Please spread the word about these positions so we can help Sierra Leone get to Zero Ebola Cases as quickly and safely as possible.

IPC training starts at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital

PCMH clinical staff engaged in IPC training

May 4th not only started a weeklong campaign for hand hygiene, it also saw the brilliant start of Infection Prevention and Control  (IPC) training at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital. PCMH is one of the 3 hospitals Welbodi Partnership supports in a national IPC program that was created by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, CDC and partners, including Welbodi. The IPC program is aimed at improving hospital standards and working alongside a national IPC Focal Nurse in each facility. There will be a big focus on training of all cadres of hospital staff in the first phase of the project, followed by a huge push on the implementation of infection control measures such as hand washing, waste segregation and appropriate sharps (needles/razors etc) management in the clinical areas. This is to ensure patient and health worker safety during the current Ebola epidemic but also for the future since there are many infectious diseases that pose a risk to our patients and staff.

The first training at PCMH was a three day long event aimed at getting our senior nurses fully prepared and trained as ‘Link’ Nurses throughout the hospital. Subjects taught by Margaret, PCMH IPC Focal Person, and Katie, Welbodi Partnership IPC Nurse Mentor, included demonstrations on hand hygiene, how to don and doff PPE and waste segregation. We even managed a race on who could construct a sharps box the fastest.  This was a great opportunity to remind staff of the importance of IPC, to encourage them to take an active role in IPC in their area of responsibility and to empower them to pass on their knowledge and skills to their colleagues as well as reinforce IPC and make sure that IPC measures are put in place in their clinical areas. 

This three-day training of 16 staff at PCMH was a great way to kick off the training for over 400 hospital staff that will need to be trained over the next two months.

Photos by: Katie Hadlock

Text by: Katie Hadlock & Sandra Lako

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to work in Sierra Leone?

Are you looking for something different? Would you be interested in working in Sierra Leone?

Welbodi Partnership is recruiting – maybe you are the person we are looking for.

You're the kind of person who likes to pitch in and help out wherever needed. You're excited to be part of a small but growing organization, helping to expand their team, kick-start new projects, and make a difference in Sierra Leone. You're positive, enthusiastic, and you see problems as just a temporary obstacle to be overcome with determination and teamwork. You're eager to roll up your sleeves and get work done, and you're not concerned about who gets credit. You know your way around an excel spreadsheet and a financial report, are comfortable screening resumes or interviewing job candidates, and could stop-gap project management from time to time -- but you're also willing to help figure out why the generator is making a strange noise, or to spend an afternoon buying furniture for a new flat.

If that sounds like you, please check out the full advert for a new and exciting position for Operations Manager here: http://www.charityjob.co.uk/uploads/wp_recruitment___operations_manager_(5).pdf

Welbodi Partnership supports World Hand Hygiene Day - #safeHANDS

The Welbodi Partnership team promotes #safeHANDS

Today, May 5th 2015, marks ten years of the WHO Clean Care is Safer Care Program and National Celebration of World Hand Hygiene Day. Approximately 800 hospitals in the African region have signed up to promoting hand hygiene and this includes the three hospitals that Welbodi Partnership is supporting: the Ola During Children’s Hospital, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital and Rokupa Government Hospital. As an organisation we want to promote hand hygiene and reinforce handwashing in the hospitals we support. Our Infection Control teams will go to the various wards in each of the hospitals to demonstrate appropriate hand hygiene using special GloGerm to show how important thorough handwashing with soap and water is in keeping themselves and their patients safe.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation is also ready to celebrate World Hand Hygiene day in collaboration with its partner organisations and a special event will be held at Connaught Hospital, where the Minister of Health and Sanitation will sign a statement pledging support to address health care associated infections in Sierra Leone. This is a milestone in Infection Prevention & Control in Sierra Leone and a necessary step in the fight against Ebola, as we strive to prevent any further health care worker infections of Ebola. We aim for safer health care facilities for staff and patients alike as we move forward in this new era of infection prevention and control in Sierra Leone.

Save Lives, Clean Your Hands!

#safeHANDS

Farewell to Katie Turner, hopefully it's a "see you later"

Katie Turner is a paediatric nurse from the UK, who completed an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Development Studies at Sussex University prior to a post-graduate Diploma in Nursing and Diploma in Tropical Nursing in London. Working for Welbodi Partnership with the dual role of IPC Nurse Mentor and Paediatric Nurse Educator, Katie is kept busy both supporting the national IPC project implementation, and working with the Ola During Nurse Trainer, Aminata. She enjoys bringing dancing to teaching sessions, which always keeps everyone enthused!

Katie finished her three months with Welbodi Partnership this past Sunday and we greatly appreciate her hard work at the Children's Hospital and everything she accomplished. We hope she comes back to work with us in the future.

Katie says: "I have thoroughly enjoyed working for Welbodi Partnership for the past three months. It was great to work in a position that supported national staff, to get to know all staff at the hospital and feel truly welcomed into the ODCH family. Welbodi's relationship with the hospital is one of participation, fairness, transparency, strengthening, listening and trust. I am proud to have worked with an organisation that represents those values so well.

Working within the Ebola outbreak finds new challenges, such as postponing some services and training. Even life saving procedures are avoided due to safety, this can shake your concept of morality when individual safety tops a patient's in a situation you would normally intervene, when a whole new level of risk and fear is involved. But to be involved in a new national programme for IPC is exciting for all; a way to train, implement and protect hospital staff so they feel confident to continue quality care during the current situation and beyond.

Working in Sierra Leone does requires a lot of patience than I was used to previously; a waiting game for funding to arrive and learning how to combine getting work done with a pace that suits everybody. It has been refreshing being in a mentor position learning how to empower, encourage and motivate to move forward. Staff are tired here, emotionally and physically, so support and enthusiasm goes a long way.

Teaching, I have experienced here, is all about an exchange of ideas, it is never just dictating from a position of knowledge, but adapting to the situation through dialog and an agreement on how to improve things steadily. Equal partnership and respect are key elements for positive change, this is something Welbodi achieves well. I would gladly work for this organisation again and encourage others to do so. Even if you don't quite end up doing what you expected to!"

For more stories from Katie about her time in Sierra Leone, visit her blog: http://www.freetowndiary.blogspot.com