Montevideo. August 29, 2022 - On August 23-24, a meeting was held in Panama City, to validate a training workshop to assist in major obstetric emergencies and severe cases of pregnant women with COVID 19.
This activity was organized by the Latin American Centre for Perinatology - Women's and Reproductive Health (CLAP/WR) of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) to contribute to building medical and non-medical capacities to improve the quality of care for various obstetric emergencies with an emphasis on respiratory infections.
The contents addressed included: early warning systems and criteria for admission to the ICU; sepsis; pre-eclampsia; thromboembolic phenomena; severe respiratory infection; loss of fetal wellbeing; and cerebral cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The dynamics included theoretical presentations to guide the practical work and a series of six stations for teamwork, analysis of content, simulations, as well as spaces for sharing experiences and opinions on the proposals that were carried out.
In addition, there was a specific module linked to aspects of communication. In this regard, the coordinator of the activity, anesthesiologists, and coordinator of Clinical Simulation at the Faculty of Medicine of the CES University in Medellín, Dr. Mauricio Vasco, said: "This is an innovative module through which we improve communication strategies, teamwork, leadership, and reduce the possibility of conflicts in the work team. These are key elements for the group that works in the mother-child binomial to have good results".
For the development of the workshop and the dynamics, we also had the participation of the intensivist obstetrician-gynecologist and professor of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Universidad del Valle, Dr. Virna Medina; the member of the High Complexity Obstetric Unit of the Lilli Valley Foundation in Cali, Dr. Javier Carvajal; the head of the Global Equity in Health Unit of the Lilli Valley Foundation, Dr. María Fernanda Escobar; and the head of Postgraduate Research in Critical Care at the University of Cartagena, Dr. José Antonio Rojas.
Dr. Suzanne Serruya, CLAP/WR’s Director, said it is essential to make progress in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity, and we are still far away from achieving the goals set out in the 2030 Agenda. "Our concern is that those who work in care can save women in emergencies. We have a debt to pregnant women," she said... "The focus has to be not only on ensuring that they survive, but also on ensuring that they do so in a healthy way.
Dr. Bremen De Mucio, Regional Advisor on Maternal Health at CLAP/SMR, was very positive about the validation of the workshop. He thanked the participation and commitment of all those who participated and said that "we are taking back a lot of timely information that will allow us to improve this course and on which we are already going to start working".
PAHO Panama representative highlights the importance of the meeting
On August 24, the representative of PAHO Panama, Dr. Ana Rivière Cinnamond, attended the meeting and toured the different stations where work was being carried out. She was able to talk with the teachers in charge and exchange with some of the participants.
At each station, Dr. Cinnamond emphasized the importance of carrying out this type of initiative to advance towards the health goals set by PAHO and thanked the experts for their presence.
She also held a meeting with Director Serruya, where they exchanged views on the strategic lines of work and existing challenges.
