Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) event enables local community to work with the Ghana Hub to create a plan for the dissemination of SSI prevention

The meeting, orchestrated by the Ghana Hub took place at Holy Family Hospital in Techiman with the participants in attendance consisting of allied healthcare professionals from the Holy Family Hospital, alongside a well represented group of patients and accompanying members of the public – including patients undergoing treatment for a stoma and laparotomy.

The main objectives of the meeting were to:

  1. Engage patients and community members on what information would be most beneficial to include in the modules being developed
  2. Discuss the output (presentations, visuals) options that would be appropriate in community education
  3. Design a strategy to implement the modules

Discussions proved to be highly conducive for meeting the objectives identified, with various ideas and topics discussed in detail and subsequently taken on board by the Hub to help with the design and delivery of the toolkit. Some of the outcomes from the meeting included:

  1. Participants preference was for education on SSI prevention to start while they are at the admission stage, rather than on the day of discharge
  2. A phone number of a contactable designated doctor in the surgical team was identified as key for patients being referred from distant communities, to discuss any queries relating to treatment
  3. Relevant dates should be added to the modules due to sutures often being removed prematurely or later than expected, due to follow-up dressing not being done by the original surgical team
  4. Information on whether antibiotics and other medications would be given to the patients, in addition to information provided on benefits of the drug given and associated side-effects
  5. Recommended that facility managers address perceptions of patients regarding the rumoured attitude of staff towards patients that led to some delaying in seeking care
  6. General information should be included on how to prevent complications, other than SSIs

During the meeting, patients suggested that educational content could be delivered in the form of visual leaflets, handed over to patients at the point of discharge. Other resources that were decided on were educational videos made for the hospitals delivering care and a picture catalogue on SSI prevention that could be used by healthcare workers to educate patients on the subject during their stay in hospital.

(L to R) Ghana Hub CEI Lead, Dr Ebenezer Amofa discusses SSI prevention with various members of the local community in Techiman

You can find out more information on SSIs by visiting the FALCON and CHEETAH trial pages.