Welsh Lesotho Paediatric Links
Aims
- To establish sustainable, vibrant links between paediatric departments in Wales and centres which care for children in Lesotho.
- Facilitate skill sharing between Welsh and staff from Lesotho in paediatrics, including nurses, doctors, pharmacists and play and other therapists.
- Work with colleagues in the QEII paediatric department to help create a centre of excellence as a hub of a managed clinical network, which can be used to train healthcare staff.
- Work with our colleagues to develop care pathways / algorithms based on the WHO Handbook, which can be used by all health professionals.
- Contribute to the scaling up and rolling out of basic neonatal resuscitation
- Contribute to the scaling up and rolling out of the mother to child transmission programme (MTCT).
Welsh Paediatric Society supported Paediatric Nurse Practitioner
The Welsh Paediatric Society (WPS) have given their support to the setting up a sustainable link between Welsh paediatricians, nurses and allied professions with colleagues practising paediatrics in Lesotho.
The WPS have agreed fund a nurse in Lesotho who will be trained in paediatrics to the standards of paediatric nurse practitioner (PNP). PNPs have been studied and proven to be as effective as doctors in the primary health care setting, see systematic review in the BMJ.
The role of the PNP, after appropriate training would be as follows -
- To have a role in terms of training nurses and health care workers (HCW) in paediatrics.
- Capacities build at the hub of a managed clinical network in QEII on the paediatric wards and in the outpatient clinics, including the HIV clinic in paediatrics.
- Identify a local HCW in each DGH who would be the local lead for paediatrics.
- Facilitate paediatric professional visits from Wales to ensure their time in Lesotho is optimised in terms of skills sharing.
Useful resources for paediatrics in Lesotho
| General paediatrics | WHO Handbook of hospital care for children |
| Paediatric HIV - Useful resources for HCW | ICAP Columbia University Resources |
| Baylor International paediatric HIV Initiative | |
| Handbook of paediatric HIV in Africa by Family Health International | |
| ARVs for children WHO the 3x5 Initiative | |
| CHIVA Children's HIV Association - UK | |
| PENTA Paediatric HIV resources - UK | |
| Aidsmap NAM information on HIV/AIDS |