Category: Clinical Teaching

Inspire Through Clinical Teaching – Uganda January 2020

Course facilitators (from left to right): Dr. Frankie Powell (USA), Dr. John Paul Ochieng (Uganda), Dr. Dean Nolte (South Africa), Dr. Christine Namata (Uganda), Dr. Naomi Shamambo (Zambia), Dr. Sonia Akrimi (UK)

The Inspire Through Clinical Teaching course was held for the second time in Uganda this past January at the New Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital in Kampala. The course facilitators included several who were present at the inaugural Ugandan Inspire course in January 2019: Dr. John Paul Ochieng (Anaesthesiologist, Uganda), Dr. Christine Namata (Anaesthesiologist, Uganda), Dr. Dean Nolte (Anaesthesiologist, South Africa), and Dr. Frankie Powell (Anaesthesiologist, USA). They were joined by Dr. Sonia Akrimi (Anaesthesiologist, UK) and Dr. Naomi Shamambo (Anaesthesiologist, Zambia), who are certainly no strangers to Inspire themselves. Dr. Ochieng served as the course director and did a fantastic job organizing everything and making sure everything was in order for the course.

Prior to welcoming our participants, we held a Training of Trainers session for the facilitators in which we honed our own skills in lesson planning, teaching, and feedback. The following day, we were met by an enthusiastic group  of participants made up of registrars, nurses, and a pharmacist. Throughout the course, the group were very engaged and actively participated in all aspect.

Participants carrying out a simulation

In particular, this group were defined by their adaptability. We unexpectedly had to switch to a new classroom partway through the course, but the participants didn’t bat an eye and carried on just as strong. Also, when we were not able to utilize the simulation lab, they helped us turn our classroom into our own lab, and they created and ran some excellent simulation scenarios.

Participants planning a small group presentation

Finally, at the end of a successful course, eleven participants were awarded certificates of completion after we heard their large and small group presentations.

Participants and facilitators after the certificate ceremony

I would like to thank several people for making this Inspire course a truly excellent experience. First, to our course director, Dr. Ochieng, for his strong work and dedication. Also, to my fellow facilitators for being an energetic group who were easy to work with and who helped me grow as an educator. Next, thank you to the Association of Anesthestiologists of Uganda and the New Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital for hosting us and providing us with the space to hold the course. And of course, a very big thank you to our participants for their hard work and their willingness to expand their skills as clinical educators.

Introducing our Guyanese Faculty!

Dr. Dev Persaud, Dr. Purnima Rao, Dr. Diana Singh, D. Ravi Motilall, Dr. Aneisha Moore-Thorne, Dr. Navin Rambaran, Dr. Esan Reid

In 2018, Inspire Through Clinical Teaching was invited to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation by Dr. Alex Harvey and the Institute of Health Sciences Education to hold our first ever teaching course in Guyana.

Four Canadian faculty from Ottawa, Niagara, and Hamilton taught an interprofessional, interdisciplinary group of thirty-two consultants, senior registrars, residents and nurses.  We had some amazing conversations about the challenges and opportunities of teaching, mentoring, and growing the next generation of Guyanese clinicians. I remember being almost brought to tears by some of the comments made during our certification ceremony.

In 2019 we were lucky to recruit three of our course participants as co-faculty along with Dr. Rao and Dr. Rastogi from Ottawa.

And here we are having just completed our third course in January 2020 with a fully trained local Guyanese faculty: Dr. Aneisha Moore-Thorne (Family Medicine), Dr. Ravi Motilall (General Surgery), Dr. Dev Persaud (Internal Medicine), Dr. Navin Rambaran (General Surgery), Dr. Esan Reid (Emergency Medicine), Dr. Winsome Scott (Pediatrics), and Dr. Diana Singh (Pediatrics).

I am so thankful for this team and all their hard work and dedication!  They’ve attended our Inspire Faculty Development Days, they’ve spent hours of their own time (and even vacation!) preparing for and teaching the course, they’ve delivered content, organized logistics, given participants, each other, and me very insightful feedback, and have started some important discussions on how to make this course sustainable in Guyana.  I am so excited to continue working with them and can’t wait to see what they do next.

Thank you again for a wonderful week!

Inspire Kenya 3!

This Tue 3rd of December, 2019 we have our third Inspire Through Clinical Teaching Course at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. This has been made possible through a grant. The previous courses were successful and we have been able to recruit local faculty. Dr. Naomi Shamambo, an anaesthesiologist at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia shall be joining us. She is on the Inspire steering committee and leads the courses in Zambia independently.

Dr. Mark Gacii who runs the WFSA Paediatric Anaesthesia Fellowship shall be part of the faculty. He attended the Inspire course in Addis in May this year. He has been instrumental in ensuring that we continue to have the Inspire courses in Nairobi.

We have a diverse local faculty from different universities in the country who act as Inspire course ambassadors. Participants have been doctors in various fields and we believe this will have a great impact on improving quality of training and developing a network of medical educators.

Thanks to the Kenya Society of Anaesthesiologists and to the University of Nairobi, Anaesthesia Department for the great support through the courses. The Anaesthesia Department at the Kenyatta National Hospital has provided the training venue each time.

Dr. Victoria Simiyu

Preparing for Inspire in Addis

We are now less than a week from the start of our inaugural Inspire Through Clinical Teaching course in Addis Ababa University/Black Lion Hospital, Ethiopia. We will be running two courses back to back, with a faculty development day in between, funded by www.casief.ca. I think we have most things organized before next Tuesday’s start.

Many thanks to Dr Mahder Barahi and Dr Ananya Anate for hosting us in Addis. It’s really exciting to take the course to a new place and I find that the best part of teaching on the course is meeting new people. There’s been a lot of interest in Addis with participants lined up from several different institutions and multiple specialties/professions. I’m also excited to spend a little more time in Addis, CASIEF has been partnered with Addis Ababa University for some years now but I’ve only had the chance to visit once before just last year.

For me two of the key things about the Inspire course is local ownership, and developing a network of medical educators. I’m used to working with Dr Amon Ngongola (see picture) in the pediatric operating rooms at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia – where he is a pediatric surgeon. Next week he’s travelling (pending visa) to Addis to be the course director for the Inspire course, having been involved in several courses in Lusaka. I’m also looking forward to seeing Dr Mark Gacii again, who is coming to Addis to take the course as a participant. I met Mark in Nairobi last year during another Inspire course, where he runs the WFSA Pediatric Anesthesia fellowship. No doubt potential future Ethiopian faculty will be recruited in the first course next week and will help to co-facilitate the next course, and there is always plenty to learn from course participants.

Finally really glad Dr Sonia Akrimi will be coming for the first course next week, and Dr Purnima Rao for the week after. They both have impressive medical education résumés and are both Inspire course authors. I think we have an ideal mix of medical educators with different levels of experience from diverse backgrounds. Watch this space for more details as the course runs – and I’ll try to post some pictures on the Instagram feed (link at bottom of the page) during the course if I get good enough internet in Addis.

— Dr. Dylan Bould

Welcome to www.inspirecourse.com

It’s an exciting time for Inspire Through Clinical Teaching. After 3 years, a dozen courses, 5 countries, and over 300 participants, Inspire has made it online!

This is a place where you can learn more about who we are and what we’re doing.  It’s a place where we can share news, photos and updates.  It’s a place where you can connect with people around the world who are interested in teaching and medical education.  It’s a place where you can learn how to get involved.

(L-R) Mark Gacii, University of Nairobi; Dean Nolte; Victoria Simiyu, University of Nairobi; Representative from Kenyatta National Hospital; Naomi Shamambo, University Teaching Hospital Lusaka, Zambia Lead for Inspire; Purnima Rao; Faye Evans, Boston Children’s Hospital, WFSA Education Committee Sonia Akrimi

None of this would have been possible without a lot of people’s time, hard work, creativity, support and encouragement.  Thank you to our course creators, our course directors and facilitators, and our participants.  We’ve learnt a lot from each other and had a lot of fun along the way.  Thank you to the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) and the Society of Anaesthetists of Zambia (SAZ) for working with us to establish Inspire Through Clinical Teaching and to spread the word about our course.  Thank you to the Global Anaesthesia Development Project (GADP), Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET), UKaid, Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation (CASIEF), Institute of Health Science Education (IHSE), and the WFSA for their financial support of Inspire Through Clinical Teaching courses.  And thank you to you, our reader, for visiting our website and for your interest in Inspire.

Make sure you check out our “What’s Happening Now” section to stay up to date with where we are and where we’re headed.  You can also follow us on (you can find links at the bottom of this page).

Join us in working towards better teaching and education in healthcare.