Programs

Training

Knowledge Transfer is the cornerstone of the organization, and the surgical missions are the vessels through which our organization fulfills this critical component. Counterpart pairing is how the organization ensures collaboration and the transfer of knowledge between our volunteers and the local medical professionals. We believe that a high-capacity medical staff will ensure sustainability for the medium to long term, as qualified local staff will continue to provide quality healthcare services long after our episodic missions have ended.

“We collaborate by educating and empowering healthcare workers with evidence-based surgical and anesthesia practices that strengthen the surgical capacity.”

The focus on knowledge transfer is simply because the inadequacies of the healthcare sector in Sierra Leone could not be fixed with episodic surgical missions alone, and as a result, SLI has developed and is implementing training and capacity development programs for the local medical professionals through classroom and patient bedside training sessions.

• Realtime Surgical Training

The bedside training sessions are based on informal counterpart exchanges between the volunteers and the Sierra Leonean medical professionals. The formal classroom training sessions are facilitated routinely and based on an as-needed basis.

It is vital that training is the focus of our services primarily because it ensures sustainability and a continued quality healthcare delivery system long after the surgical missions have left in addition, SLI maintains a very high standard of financial accountability and transparency.

• Anesthesia Training

Formal classroom training sessions are conducted during every mission. Training has been continually conducted in patient safety and pain management. During these sessions, the introduction of state-of-the-art anesthesia techniques in administering anesthetics, pain management, and pre-and post-operative care are made. Classroom training sessions are ongoing for training in First Aid and BLS/ACLS critical care techniques, in which participants are trained by American Heart Association certified trainers. A training-the-trainer model is presently being implemented, which ensures year-round access to training for our various training programs. In November 2021, our organization facilitated our first Anesthesia Conference in Sierra Leone, with a focus on Patient Safety and Pain Management. The conference benefited 140 anesthetic professionals from around the country.

• Medical Exchange

Our commitment to capacity building has seen our medical exchange program, established in 2018- presented the opportunity to three medical professionals from Sierra Leone to shadow surgical and medical professionals from our partner medical hospitals in New Jersey and Maryland for a month.

Equipment and Medication Donation Program

Besides providing surgical care, education, and training, Saving Lives Initiatives routinely donates medical equipment to partner medical facilities in Sierra Leone. For each piece of equipment donated, Saving Lives Initiatives provides the necessary technical assistance (clinical engineering support) to train local hospital staff to operate and maintain the equipment. To ensure donated materials and equipment are sustainable, Saving Lives Initiatives provides technical assistance to manage the installation, maintenance, and repairs and the relevant training of local technicians.