Honduras Health and Emergency Medicine
Update December 2019
We teamed up with Project SEMILLA and the medical faculty at The National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) to prepare the two-day conference described below in Tegucigalpa, where about 160 residents participated in hands-on learning and skill stations.
Additionally, 20 students were selected for a third day of more intensive “train the teacher” training, after which they committed to share and promote their newly gained knowledge with their peers.
Thanks to your generosity, we were able to sponsor three physicians from Santa Teresa Hospital in Comayagua, one of our partners, to attend the conference.
We heard repeatedly from those in attendance that they had never in their careers received training and instructions of this caliber. During closing ceremonies, the dean of the medical school also recognized the Brigade's contributions through equipment donation and facilitation of residents to rotate for surgeries and social services at San Benito Jose, our other partner hospital in Comayagua.
Your support can continue to enable long-term, sustaining, life-saving efforts for years ahead. Thank you!
Story September 2019
We are excited to feature an emergency medicine training in partnership with Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH) and Project Semilla this November.
This three-day course will feature didactic sessions for approximately 100 interns/residents and medical students on the latest in advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), followed by skill stations at which we will run mock cardiac arrests using simulators and mannequins. A similar course offered in May 2019 drew approximately 250 people to a one-day symposium on trauma basics, for which VHCMB sponsored three Comayagua clinicians to attend.
The third day will include training and hands-on skill stations for approximately 40 instructors to learn advanced airway management skills, as well as intraosseus access, pharmacology of antiarrythmic drugs and leadership skills.
Supplies are being donated to UNAH by VHCMB and Project Semilla. VHCMB hosted a smaller emergency airway course in 2018 in Comayagua and co-hosted an emergency medicine symposium in May 2019 in Tegucigalpa. VHCMB plans to sponsor 3-4 physicians from Comayagua to attend the November 2019 training.
Emergency Medicine (EM) is a specialty that has existed in the US since 1980, though it is nonexistent in Honduras. The expertise and level of training by physicians manning ED’s throughout the nation is inadequate. Honduras has one of the highest homicides and trauma rates in the world, and the presence of EM skills is woefully inadequate.
The goal of our partnership to develop these courses is to train existing physicians who are practicing now, as well as to one day establish an emergency medicine residency in Honduras. The latter requires substantial commitment and support from the Ministry of Health.