Suubi Trust » Duncan Smith

Volunteering With International Medical Group

Suubi Trust — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:00:16 +0000

At IMG we are committed to our vision to make a difference to health care in Uganda. Our emphasis on quality standards, continuous improvement and excellent services to our patients are the core pillars that inform our practice. We also believe that in a country where there is paucity of skills or skilled personnel, we can make a difference by building capacity through sharing knowledge.This is why we have a volunteer programme that welcomes skilled professionals willing to work in Uganda, with the available systems and personnel. This way, we engender a learning culture and continuous learning that empowers people at the grassroots to be better health workers.

Through our volunteer programme we have had and continue to enrol volunteers from Uganda and overseas who have found this a rewarding experience.

In Uganda, we have several young volunteers whose help has been vital in maintaining our records and database; including general administrative duties and tasks. Volunteers from England, USA, Belgium and other countries have also contributed in the areas of nursing and midwifery, trauma and emergency care, among others.

One of our longest serving volunteers is a Nurse Tutor recruited through Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). His experience has been immensely rewarding as he shares nursing knowledge and expertise with students who have a dream to be excellent nurse practitioners. We believe that his efforts to impart knowledge and critical thinking will have profound outcomes in the quality of nursing care that these students will give – we can already see it in their student practice now.

As of March 2008, we have a second volunteer from VSO working with the Finance Team to devise, implement or improve finance systems across the organisation.

The hospital currently has critical needs in:

Paediatrics
Midwifery
Intensive care nursing
Health Service/ General Management
Anaesthesiology and Critical Care
Tutoring at the nursing school

Please contact us if you are interested in sharing knowledge in these areas.

Click here to read more about opportunities through VSO…

Duncan Smith: Sharing Skills, Changing Lives

Suubi Trust — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:00:40 +0000

Duncan is now more than 6 months into his planned 2 year stint as a VSO Nurse Educator working with us at International Hospital Kampala.

He is having a great time and has contibuted so much already.

Read more here…

Nurse on a mercy mission to Africa

Suubi Trust — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:50:26 +0000

News article on icSurreyOnline

A NURSE has flown to Uganda to try to make a difference to the health of a nation riddled with HIV, deprived of basic medical care and where life expectancy is 50 years.

Duncan Smith, a cardiology nurse, will spend two years in Africa educating nurses with the aim of leaving a legacy of improved healthcare provision in the country.

Mr Smith, 26, a volunteer for Horley and Gatwick St John Ambulance, based in Massetts Road, Horley,said he was under “no illusions” about the challenges which lay in store, having previously worked in Swaziland, southern Africa.

He said: “The first thing I was told was to expect the unexpected.

“Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is about leaving behind something sustainable so whatever you have provided will continue after you have gone.

“As a nurse they would not send me just to work as a nurse but as a nurse educator so I can share my skills and knowledge with nurses in Uganda.

“The goals are to help with education, HIV/AIDS, health and social well-being.”

Uganda, in eastern Africa, is a country in chronic and urgent need of Mr Smith’s expertise.

Mr Smith, who works at the coronary care unit of St Thomas’ Hospital in London, will be working at the new school of nursing at the International Hospital in the capital, Kampala.

He said: “I will be the first VSO nurse there and I expect to do classroom training,bedside training, developing assessment tools and promoting participating, student-centred training.I might even do some rural outreach work.”

Mr Smith, who has a masters degree in nursing and a diploma in tropical medicine, came through a gruelling year-long selection procedure to be chosen for the role, undergoing medical tests, rounds of injections and training sessions to prepare him for work in the field.

Not only was he chosen for the two-year assignment, he was also selected as the face of the 2007-08 VSO fundraising campaign as the initiative seeks to move away from recruiting gap-year students towards targeting experienced professionals.