In Ghana, Nigeria and Ethiopia, the PACT project supports local surgeons and specialists in the development and delivery of advanced training programs in plastic surgery, anaesthetic nursing and speech therapy. This project is coordinated by Seattle Children’s Hospital and partly funded by Transforming Faces.
Simultaneous to the Nigerian Anesthesiology Course, Ghana held a PACT Cleft Surgical Techniques workshop at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. Trainers, from Ghana and Seattle, trained four participants from Ethiopia and Nigeria.
From September 23 to 27, eight participants gathered in Accra, Ghana to establish training programs for cleft surgeons to develop additional expertise in cleft-related surgeries. These surgeries include cleft palate repair, palatal fistula repair, lip revision, rhinoplasty, and alveolar bone graft.
The course also aimed to establish training programs for nurses to develop expertise in the pre-operative evaluation and education, operative assistance, and post-operative care of patients with cleft lip and/or palate.
The trainees participated in a cleft team clinic review where they evaluated up to 20 patients in advance of surgery that was carried out later in the week. They attended lectures about nutrition, alveolar bone graft, Cleft lip/nose revision, post-op nursing care, speech pathology and nursing. They also participated in post-operative ward rounds and visited paediatric services at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.