The global surgical care crisis requires action at all levels, from changes in health policymaking to the provision of infrastructure and equipment to the expansion and the upskilling of the frontline surgical care workforce.
More than a decade ago, RCSI began a collaboration with the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), creating the only partnership to effectively establish and advance in-country surgical training programmes across fourteen countries in Africa.
Since then, RCSI has led two multi-country research partnerships, impacting in a multi-level way from national policy down to district hospitals and rural communities, using a health-systems strengthening approach to demonstrate the feasibility, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of non-specialist delivered surgery.
RCSI has a pioneering approach to health systems strengthening, through research, education and training, to provide solutions to the surgical deficit in resource-poor settings. Across numerous interventions and research programmes, the team has shown that training and upskilling clinical teams at district level provides the single greatest opportunity to increase access to timely and safe surgical care.
To date there is no single definitive source for global surgery materials to support the training and education for the surgeons, anaesthesia providers, obstetricians and gynaecologists and peri-operative nurses practicing in underserved communities.
In response, the RCSI Institute of Global Surgery is partnering with the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) and United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to develop an open-access UN hosted Global Surgery Learning Hub that gathers and allows easy access to a wide range of trusted, quality global surgery educational resources.
It will provide appropriate in-service and pre-service education and training opportunities to all cadres involved in the delivery of surgical care as well as relevant stakeholders in research, policy, academia, and industry.
The platform will enable institutions and individuals to work with the content to build combinations of courses tailored to their learning needs, and to see the appropriate usage, feedback, and activity completion data.
This open access global surgery e-learning Hub is designed to be a convenient, open-access repository of curated, high-quality courses and training resources, appropriate for low-resource contexts.
The project will begin with an open consultative process. Relevant institutions – whose members may be supplying content, accessing content, or both – will also be invited to join the project committees and contribute to the shaping of the Hub.
You can find out more here or by emailing Dr Ines Peric or Eric O’Flynn from the RCSI Institute of Global Surgery.
RCSI is committed to achieving a better and more sustainable future through the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
