School of Anaesthesia

Background

Lacor School of Nursing, Laboratory Training School, and Theatre Assistant school are sister institutions belonging to St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor, located within the hospital premises. Lacor Hospital is approximately five kilometres west of Gulu Town, along Juba Road in the Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu (Gulu District). The Schools were started in 1973, 1979 and 2015 respectively. The founders were, the late Drs. Piero Corti and Teasdale Lucille. From the beginning to date, the schools have been under separate management but under the same Governance and ownership of Lacor Hospital.

The School of Anaesthesia, on the other hand, is a Government school belonging to the Uganda institutes of Allied Health and Management Sciences, Mulago Kampala.

Course offered

Specialized Advance Diploma in Anaesthesia

Duration 2 years

Entry requirements – any one of the following

• Diploma in Midwifery
• Diploma in nursing
• Diploma in clinical medicine and community health
• Diploma in comprehensive nursing
• Ordinary Diploma in anaesthesia (Anaesthetic assistant)

The School of Anaesthesia was started in 1997, in response to increased surgical interventions and relatively limited numbers of anaesthesiologists to manage emergencies and elective surgical procedures. This is a pilot centre for students from the Northern Region who wish to study Anaesthesia.

We have so far trained 24 Anaesthetic Officers and 58 Anaesthetic Assistants providing anaesthetic services in government and non- government institutions in Uganda. Generally, we have 25 Anaesthetic Officers under training. We are dedicated to improving anaesthetic services through our production units and ensuring that all regional referral hospitals and HCVI have trained anaesthetists.

Policy

We aim to deliver safe anaesthesia and to improve patient outcomes from anaesthesia through pre-operative preparation and management of patients who need surgical care. Equally, we are committed to improving the institutional infrastructure facilities and educational programmes, to meet the needs of communities in line with government policies in health and education.

 Objectives

Our aim is to produce quality, competent and skilled Anaesthetic Officers to respond to the community needs, foster academic, professional growth, career development and mentoring.

 School Activities

 Morning conference

This activity is chaired and conducted by students before lectures and theatre. All the students and teaching staff discuss and share experiences in general anaesthetic managements and care:

• Pre-operative evaluation and preparation
• Experience from planned surgical procedures
• Experiences from emergencies (night calls and intensive care unit); reports of critical incidences are shared, noted and appropriate action taken.

 

Lectures

Contact hours: 1- 2 hours in classroom and 6- hour-clinical practical work, every day.

Field attachment

National referral of 6 weeks and Specialized units of 2-week duration which are scheduled during the final year of training to promote competence, professional growth and development.

Field attachment sites

Mulago National Referral and Mbarara National Referral Hospitals where students are distributed to selected surgical departments such as intensive care unit, emergency and accident unit/theatre, Obstetrics and gynaecological theatre, ENT, Orthopaedics, neurological, Cardiothoracic and plastic theatres.

 Examinations

The school runs on a semester system; every end of semester a national examination is carried out. Our students have registered 80-90% success in their examinations over the last 20 years.

 Our Team

• Retired Anaesthesiologist from UK (2)
• 1 Resident Anaesthesiologists
• 3 tutors (one qualified, two undergoing training in tutors’ college)
• 1 clinical instructor
• Support from WFSA e-books and text books for students and tutor references
  

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 Future plans

• To open a school for intensive care medicine and recovery alongside the Anaesthesia School
• Establish an Emergency Response Team for Gulu
• Establish pain management clinics, especially in obstetrics
• Establish a training centre for Regional Anaesthesia and Central Venous Access
  

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