A collaboration between Aga Khan University, the Nairobi Hospital, the National Cancer Institute of Kenya (NCI) as well as the Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA) has provided advanced training to healthcare professionals working with cancer patients.
Over 20 healthcare practitioners from across Kenya were present at Nairobi Hospital’s Anderson Centre during the weeklong course, which is part of the ChemoSafe project, and is the first such session in the East Africa region. The project seeks to promote safe handling and administration of chemotherapy as well as quality service provision to cancer patients
Tayreez Mushani, assistant professor at AKU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery East Africa (SONAM EA) faculty was one of the course faculty, along with a number of educators from various institutions.
Ms Mushani said: “The training has brought public, private, faith-based and external actors in the healthcare space together which is so rare. I’m happy to have been a part of making this happen.”
The training’s objectives are in line with goals under the Kenyan Health Ministry’s National Cancer Control Strategy which calls for efforts to improve the skills of health professionals treating cancer.
Faculty from the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS), the American Cancer Society and University of North Carolina also served as guest facilitators over several sittings. They took participants through various facets of cancer care and newer ways of delivering quality care to cancer patients.
During the opening ceremony, Dr Andrew Karagu, CEO of the NCI shared that “the training is to ensure that we are all aligned in delivering chemotherapy care” particularly as healthcare professionals.
Chemotherapy is one of the main features of SONAM’s Higher Diploma in Oncology Nursing, and Ms Mushani was part of the core team that conceived the training. Two other alumni from SONAM’s oncology nursing programme Joyce Marete and Immaculate Wambugu also conducted sessions during the event.