CNIS works to secure safer communities in Guyana through courses for health practitioners at instructor and provider levels, where injuries and road traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death and disability.

CNIS has supported the CAGS project in Guyana since 2006 with the introduction of Trauma Team Training (TTT). The purpose of this course is to ensure that all personnel share the same basic understanding and are able to work together efficiently and effectively. In October 2006, Dr. Cameron of McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, and Dr. Madan Rambaran of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) invited CNIS to conduct the TTT course in the capital, Georgetown. Initiated by Dr. Robert Taylor, the project was headed by Dr. Cameron, while the Guyanese team was led by Dr. Madan Rambaran. CNIS provided the training equipment. The TTT instructor’s course was followed by a Providers course for five hospital teams in Georgetown, where medical students from the University of Guyana volunteered as trauma victims for the final exams. The objective was to provide Guyanese surgeons with the ability to conduct the TTT provider’s courses the following three years independently of CNIS.

In 2009, CNIS conducted two Trauma Team Training instructor’s courses at Georgetown Public Hospital, providing Guyana with 18 certified instructors over the next three years. The newly certified Guyanese instructors offered a provider’s course to multi-disciplinary teams from emergency departments in Georgetown, Linden, New Amsterdam, West Demerara and Suddie, hence providing trauma skills throughout the country. In November of 2009 three surgeons in Guyana took part in the first CNIS intercontinental TTT instructor’s course held in Vancouver. The course was successfully linked to Guyana through Skype and web cam.

In November 2010, High-fidelity simulation was used for first time in Guyana to teach trauma skills. Almost 40 physicians, nurses and medical students used a computerized manikin brought from McMaster University to practice and improve care of trauma patients at a TTT Update course organized through GPHC’s Institute for Health Science Education. Simulation like this is being increasingly used in medical training, and the TTT course was developed to train health professionals working in A&E departments in developing countries. In the past 4 years, 19 Guyanese TTT Instructors have trained 126 local medical personnel to save lives through better emergency care.

Julie Pemberton of McMaster University is currently conducting a formal evaluation of the TTT course in order to determine the reliability of our measurement instruments and the intermediate impact of the course on knowledge, technical skills, and team management.

Recently McMaster University has developed a TTT refresher course that was piloted in 2110 and 2011. The 2011 refresher course was lead by Dr Navindra Rambaran and had 6 male and 12 female participants. McMaster is currently preparing a refresher manual that CNIS will publish in order to make the refresher course available for use in Uganda and Tanzania.

Both the TTT courses and the ESS courses in Guyana are made possible through the cooperation of Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) and the continued support of Dr. Brian Cameron from McMaster University.