Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of three posts by Victoria Elliot, MSPH, a public health professional and medical student who accompanied HVO staff member April Pinner on a recent trip to Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. With Victoria’s permission, we will be publishing three reflective pieces that she has written about this experience on the HVO blog over the next several months. Victoria’s background in public health, coupled with the fact that she is in the midst of receiving her own medical training, enables her to bring a unique perspective to HVO’s long-standing and successful collaboration with AHC. We hope you enjoy this inside look from an outside perspective. Stay tuned for Victoria’s two other pieces—highlighting HVO’s hematology training project at AHC, and the process of transforming health worker trainees into teachers.
With a mission to “Improve health care for all Cambodia’s children,” Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) in Siem Reap, Cambodia aims both to provide high quality pediatric health care to patients, and to become a center of excellence for education within Cambodia, ensuring that there are a sufficient number of skilled Cambodian health care professionals to deliver high quality care to children throughout the country. To achieve this, AHC provides continuing education to its own staff, government health workers and local health care professionals from around the nation.
AHC’s efforts to increase the number of educational opportunities available to the Cambodian health workforce is closely aligned to HVO’s mission to “[improve] the availability and quality of health care through the education, training and professional development of the health workforce in resource-scarce countries.” HVO and AHC entered into partnership in 2001. This partnership has grown to include projects in hematology, anesthesia, nursing education, pediatrics, and wound care. In 2005, AHC was officially recognized as Cambodia’s first teaching hospital.
Last month, I had the opportunity to visit AHC along with HVO staff member April Pinner. We received a warm welcome from Dr. Rathi Guhadasan, director of the hospital’s newly opened Education Department, along with the rest of the AHC staff, who helped to make our week-long visit a huge success. In addition to checking-in on the numerous collaborative projects listed above, April and I had the opportunity to learn about the hospital’s 2016-2020 Strategic Plan. Over the next four years, AHC will focus on developing its research capacity and working constantly to improve patient outcomes and health care practices. Further, AHC continues to invest in the ongoing educational advancement and professional development of their staff – promoting a culture of lifelong learning and professional excellence that was palpable in each staff person we met.
It was inspiring to observe AHC’s commitment to sustainably increasing the knowledge and training of Cambodian health professionals, and to see the hospital grow closer to achieving its vision of “all Cambodian children [having] access to high quality, compassionate care wherever they live and whatever their ability to pay.” It is with great respect, pleasure and excitement that HVO continues to work with AHC towards achieving that vision.
Photos: Top: (from left) Sophal, an AHC nurse anesthetist; Victoria Elliot, MSPH; Im Uom, AHC Surgical Coordinator; Dr Pheakdey, a pediatrician and AHC anesthetist; HVO Evaluation Specialist April Pinner, MSPH, RD; Pen An Imm, an AHC nurse anesthetist. Center: Linda Morm (left), AHC Volunteer Coordinator; Dr. Rathi Guhadasan (right), Director of Education at AHC. Bottom: Pen An Imm (left) and Dr. Pheakdey (right) listen to an HVO volunteer lecture in the pre-op area. AHC staff often squeeze in short lectures or discussions in between surgeries.