ZADP has been our flagship partnership since 2012. As the body of trained physician anaesthetists grows we can see that this partnership has adapted and grown to offer much more than the initial 4-year competency based anaesthesia training program we set out to deliver. Hand-in-hand with the Society of Anaesthetists of Zambia (the professional association established and run by graduates of the training program) we are working closely on a number of initiatives to improve the provision of safer anaesthesia in Zambia and equip graduates with the essential skills to become effective leaders in healthcare.
The program is composed of:
- An annual cohort of 8-12 teaching Fellows - providing training in the clinical environment, focusing on all anaesthetic subspecialties and critical care
- An annual cohort of up to 10 Consultant Anaesthetists - providing advanced subspecialty training and career mentoring The program is structured around the provision of in-theatre teaching, simulation training, classroom teaching, quality improvement projects and teaching courses.
As of March 2020, ZADP has expanded its work beyond the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka to support a new specialty training programme in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia at Ndola Central Hospital and Arthur Davison Children’s Hospitals.
Within ZADP we invest time and effort into building the partnership as a whole and working together to design projects that develop anaesthetic training and fit the overall goals of the partnership. Being responsive and continually developing the partnership is vital, and we currently focus on in-theatre projects as these most closely build relationships between volunteers and local stakeholders, with most benefit. We also spend time exploring what our Zambian partners enjoy learning and how they prefer to learn and build this into project work and training opportunities. Based on this, our current areas of project work are:
- Point-of-contact ultrasound training including regional anaesthesia, vascular access and echocardiography using Focused Intensive Care Echo (FICE) courses approved by the Intensive Care Society (UK) and weekly workshops on the Medical Intensive Care Unit
- A programme of critical incident simulation training including training focusing on maternal and neonatal health
- Advanced subspecialty and career mentoring training, at present focusing on obstetric and regional anaesthesia and critical care
To see what opportunities are available as part of ZADP, check the Get Involved page.
