Three clinicians return from providing lifesaving training to hospital staff in Sri Lanka

Three clinicians who swapped the wards at Lincoln County Hospital for providing lifesaving training to hospital staff in Sri Lanka, have now returned.

Consultant Cardiologist David O’Brien, Consultant Cardiologist Dinal Taleyratne and Lead Resuscitation Practitioner Monique Loveday provided training around advanced life support and cardiac arrest management.

Dr Taleyratne was born in Sri Lanka and has always wanted to return and give something back to the country of his birth. He spent a year planning the trip which took place last month.

He said: “We supported doctors by instructing on a local European Resuscitation Council Advanced Life Support course, in addition to training staff on a bespoke ‘train-the-trainer’ course which we helped to develop and shared our knowledge on specific areas of emergency cardiac care.

“The trip was a great success and we received an extremely warm welcome. Everyone was so accommodating and grateful that we had given up our time to travel and share our expertise with them.”

The trip was funded by the trio outside of NHS budgets. They spent 14 hours a day training and then gave up some of their evenings to lecture at events.

During their trip, they managed to train 24 doctors and nurses from across the country on the train the trainer course who are now able to go back to their local hospitals and train their colleagues. They also trained an additional 48 doctors and nurses in advanced life support techniques.

The team from Lincolnshire also delivered a lecture to the College of Anaesthesiologists and Intensivists of Sri Lanka, attended by a representative from the Ministry of Health, focusing on the management of out of hospital cardiac arrest and resuscitation education in NHS hospitals.

The three colleagues say they learned so much from the trip. Monique said: “All three of us have a real passion around training, education and sharing knowledge and expertise. We were all inspired by the value that is placed on education and training in the country.

“I learned so much from the team in Sri Lanka, they have a unique support system that starts prior to any training which really helped to make sure the candidates were well prepared. We hit a few stumbling blocks along the way, but the team worked beautifully together to ensure the course was a success. The candidates and faculty alike were so grateful for the opportunity to attend in person.”

Professor O’Brien is professor of medical education at the School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, and is also Vice-Dean at the Lincoln Medical School. He has worked as an interventional cardiologist in United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust for 16 years where he was former Clinical Director for Cardiology, opening the Lincolnshire Heart Centre at the Trust in 2013. He has been teaching Advanced Life Support (ALS) for 25 years and has been an ALS course medical director for 15 years.

He said: “It was a real privilege to be able to share our knowledge and also learn from others. It was great to make so many connections and we have since heard that one of the doctors we worked with on the course has now applied for a job in our Trust.”

It was the first time Professor O’Brien and Monique had visited Sri Lanka, so once all of the training was completed all three colleagues spent some time exploring the country at their own expense. They went on safari, met elephants, visited temples, observed the stunning landscapes and said they got to experience true local hospitality from the people of Sri Lanka.

Professor O’Brien added: “I truly believe that education is a powerful tool and a wonderful gift and one which we often take for granted. It was great to have the opportunity to offer the benefit of our combined years of experience to another country that currently just does not have the same infrastructure and financial resource to support teaching and training of these vital skills, as we are fortunate enough to have in the UK.

“I feel so privileged to have been able work on this project as part of such a fantastic team, and also with such dedicated colleagues in Sri Lanka. It has reaffirmed to me that wherever you are in the world, clinicians all have the same common goal; that of improving outcomes for their patients.”