1 June 2021 – The World Health Organization (WHO) in Libya and the Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome have jointly launched a specialized online e-learning course for nurses working in paediatric hospitals and units in Libya.
The course has been developed as part of a 3-year agreement between WHO and the Bambino Gesù hospital to build the capacity of medical and nursing staff in Libya’s main paediatric hospitals. Original plans to offer 3 to 6-month internships at the Bambino Gesù Hospital for Libyan nurses and physicians have had to be put on hold following the COVID-19 pandemic. The internships will be launched as soon as the situation allows. In the meantime, the hospital has developed online training courses that are available on its multilingual e-learning platform “Medtraining”, which aims to provide professional training and education to health care workers in the developing world. Medtraining is available in 5 languages: Italian, English, Arabic, French and Spanish.
“The project that we are developing together with WHO Libya responds to one of the main objectives of our hospital: sharing the knowledge and competence we have acquired in clinical practice and research. The use of Medtraining and of the technologies supporting virtual training will help us be more effective and timely in pursuing this objective. We hope this project shall be further extended and reach more and more children needing specialist care,” said Mrs Mariella Enoc, President of the Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome.
A total of 156 nurses from 8 Libyan hospitals and medical centres across the country1 have enrolled in Medtraining’s first e-course specifically targeting nurses in Libya. Bambino Gesù is also developing modules for Libyan physicians on topics, including paediatric intensive care, neonatology, cardiology and haematology. Each training module will take between 3 and 6 months to complete. These courses can be easily replicated in other languages and made available to other countries with the same educational needs.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs started a collaboration with the Bambino Gesù Hospital in 2019 within a humanitarian emergency programme, entailing specialist care for 14 children from Libya affected with severe haematological diseases. On May 2020, another 25 Libyan paediatric patients were treated at Bambino Gesù Hospital. Supporting paediatric care in Libya is an important initiative and for this reason, the Ministry approved a project proposed by the Italian Cooperation aimed at strengthening paediatric services in the hospitals of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sebha and Kufra, through training activities and suppling medical equipment,” said Ms Marina Sereni Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs in Italy.
Ms Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO Representative in Libya, said that this 3-year collaboration was important for strengthening the nursing workforce and enhancing health care services for Libyan children. “This follows our hugely successful collaboration with Bambino Gesù on a similar project in Syria. We are delighted that the Bambino Gesù’s world-renowned specialists are offering similar support to train paediatricians and nurses in Libya. We could not be more grateful to the hospital for its continuing generosity and commitment.”
1 In Al Bayda, Benghazi, Derna, Misrata, Sebha, Sirt, Tobruk and Tripoli.
