From left to right: Ms. Becca deDufour (BSN, RN, CCRN, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center), Nurse Grace NTIMEU KEPNDEP (Lead ICU Nurse, Mbingo Baptist Hospital), Dr. David Sunday (Lead ICU Physician, Mbingo Baptist Hospital), Ms. Joanna Tomicich (DNP, NP-C, AGACNP-BC, FCCM, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
Recognizing that the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nursing team at Mbingo Baptist Hospital (MBH) in Cameroon would benefit from ICU-specific training beyond their nursing degrees, Dr. David Sunday and Nurse Grace NTIMEU KEPNDEP, MBH, reached out to BVGH for help. BVGH connected with Ms. Becca deDufour and Ms. Joanna Tomicich of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) to explore a customized training and mentorship program. Based on insights shared by Ms. NTIMEU KEPNDEP and Dr. Sunday, Ms. Tomicich, an advanced practice provider and acute care nurse practitioner, and Ms. deDufour, an ICU nurse, combined their ICU experience to assemble a multidisciplinary team from MSK to support MBH’s needs through digital presentations and discussions. Consisting of respiratory therapists, physicians, nurses, a dietician, social workers, and advanced practice providers, the MSK multidisciplinary team approach resulted in a well-rounded, informative method to education and knowledge sharing that covered the full range of responsibilities held by the ICU nurses at MBH.
The MSK online lectures are interactive, allowing for questions to be asked and answered live, with the option of sending additional questions to the MSK team via email or WhatsApp at any time. Sessions either introduce a topic requested by the MBH ICU team or build on a topic that was previously presented but the team would like to learn more about, and recordings of each session are shared with the MBH ICU team for members who were unable to join. Sessions have been held up to three times per month since May of 2023, with 19 sessions completed to date and more to come.