One of my highlights about this year has been the success of
our ‘big dream’ project – to implement the World Health Organisation Surgical
Safety Checklist in all the regional hospitals in Madagascar. It has been a big
hairy audacious goal (BHAG). And thanks to a wonderful team effort - a team made up of some the most incredible
people I know – this BHAG has almost been achieved.
One of these incredible people is Dr Hasina Rakotoarison. She is a Malagasy doctor has been working full
time on this project since August 2015, and had previously helped me try out
some ideas earlier in 2015 that paved the way for this big project.
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| Hasina loves her country and her people and is passionate about bringing hope and healing through healthcare to those in need. |
I had never heard of the Checklist until
my Supervisor at the Hospital proposed it as an interesting topic for my thesis
to finish my medical degree. I chose to study this area because I was very
interested in patient safety, and the Checklist was little known in Madagascar
but had astonishing benefits for the safety of the patient having surgery. I
always had in mind that I want to become a surgeon, so I planned to apply the
checklist to my own work, but I never imagined that I could have an opportunity
to share the benefits of the checklist with other teams around the
country. For me, this project with Mercy Ships is very exciting because
it has made a dream of mine come true; to share what I have learned and spread
the message to surgical teams in every region.
During the last 17 training courses, I
have discovered that many other people are also very passionate about
increasing the security of patients undergoing surgery, but they don’t have
many opportunities to discuss this together and find practical solutions. Even
though I am Malagasy myself, I did not realise the challenges some of these
teams face in their everyday working lives. For example, some teams in remote
regions are very isolated, the health care needs of their population can be
very great, and the hard-working hospital staff manage in difficult conditions.
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| Hasina the local doctors and nurses adapt their own Checklist for the operating room |
This training course has given me an
opportunity to encourage those who share the vision to increase the quality of
care for patients, and work together with them to make that vision a reality in
their local hospital.
I have also seen how a tool like the
Checklist can transform the atmosphere in teams, improving communication and
working relationships. Even our training team didn’t recognise the significance
when some hospital teams said that the secret of their success was ‘love’. This
is something I have learned from them when I read the feedback forms! Because
even such a simple word like ‘”LOVE” I didn’t understand until much later when
I came to realise how right they were in saying you have to “Love each other”.
The Checklist is not just a simple tool, it can change the whole hospital. The
Checklist brings love with it and can change everything at a place where it is
implemented well. We have noticed that where teams support each other and
communicate well, you can FEEL the difference in the working atmosphere if they
have love in their team.
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| The Checklist can reinforce relationships in the operating room by helping teams work TOGETHER for the good of the patient |
The hospital teams I have met on this
project demonstrate by their actions the true meaning of ‘love’ described in
book of Corinthians:
‘Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures
through every circumstance.’ 1 Cor 13:7
In the future, I wish to remember those
people from the places I have visited where there is great need, and would love
to have the opportunity to revisit them to assist in providing healthcare and
bringing ‘hope and healing’.
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| Hasina volunteers as a patient for a simulated operation to practice using the checklist. One day she hopes to come back as the surgeon! |
