International Day of Education
At the Foundation for African Medicine and Education (FAME), we place the same value on education as healthcare. Because at FAME, we know that to provide high-quality, patient-centered care, we must be completely committed to learning, growing and transforming as individuals and as a team. On this International Day of Education, FAME is proud to highlight its investment in education and the life-long learning of our staff.
At FAME, we recognize that positive outcomes for our patients rely on the strength of our team. Therefore, FAME views capacity-building as a long-term investment in our Tanzanian staff’s ability to treat patients by creating new structures and approaches to deal with complex cases, supporting patients and their families and working to effect necessary systemic change as a model institution for patient-centered care. By continuously educating our staff, FAME ensures that we are best positioned to have an even more significant impact on the populations we serve for generations to come.
Here’s a look at what's in store for education and capacity-building at FAME in 2023:
Mental Health Course for all FAME staff
FAME’s Housekeeping Team, at the mental health training.
FAME’s Social Worker, Angel Obeid, educates the housekeeping team on the importance of mental health.
This year, FAME has introduced an in-house mental health course training to support the prevention and alleviation of staff stress and anxiety.
Mental health conditions are increasing worldwide (WHO) and mental health stigma remains strong in northern Tanzania. Mental health problems are believed by many to be a myth and those who struggle with mental health have nowhere to turn.
In light of this, last year, FAME sponsored its Social Worker, Angel Obeid, to attend a Mental Health for Organizational Success course at the Institute of Social Work in Dar es Salaam. This course brought together government and private organizations to learn and discuss mental health conditions. The training equipped Angel with information and skills to train her fellow employees at FAME.
“I’ve started training FAME staff on stress management in an occupational area. In today’s world, there is so much going on that can affect people’s mental health and FAME wants to ensure that our staff feels supported. This course seeks to increase mental health awareness amongst our staff to create more understanding and less stigma and to offer details on the access to quality mental health care and treatments available. I’ve already trained the housekeeping department and they have been very receptive and asked many questions. I intend to do this with every department at FAME. Everyone must know that mental health conditions are indiscriminate and can affect anyone.”
Diane Returns!
FAME’s long-term volunteer, the amazing Diane Berthel.
Long-term volunteer, Diane Berthel, has returned to FAME for three months to spearhead our intensive management training across departments.
Last year, Diane led a three-month process to develop FAME’s current Strategic Plan. She met with all department heads to discuss the strategic priorities identified and the resources needed to support them through their work.
This year, Diane plans to meet with department heads to discuss the progress made on the strategic priorities and the next steps they need to take to ensure that FAME continues to see growth and success in these areas.
“There will be individual and team coaching to establish initial goals regarding the strategic priorities during my three-month stay. I will pay particular attention to resource management in three general areas; employee capacity, data analysis and use and internal and external collaborations. The overall focus will be to offer support to achieve interim and long-term strategic priority goals.”
Welcome back, Diane!
Doctor and Nurse Training continues
A past doctors training session. FAME doctors were joined by FAME Co-Founder and Co-Director, Susan Gustafson (third left) and volunteer Emergency Medicine Doctor, Natalie Strokes (right, in scrubs).
FAME’s Head Nurse, Kizito Koinet (left) leads a nurses training session.
In 2023, FAME will continue providing educational opportunities for its medical staff.
In 2022, FAME staff received over 100 trainings and lectures from specialists from around the world. This year, on-campus trainings, online consultations via zoom and western-trained medical specialists from overseas medical communities coming to FAME as on-site volunteers will take center stage.
Some educational opportunities offered to FAME staff in 2022 included epilepsy case management, electronic fetal monitoring, rabies awareness, emergency care, cervical cancer screening, malnutrition education and postnatal care, among many others.
“Capacity development is critical to achieving results and sustaining what we have already built. It is a process of learning new skills, which in FAME’s case, has fostered a great sense of ownership. A big thank you to all our supporters; we are so grateful for the support and look forward to another year of collaboration.”