A new program aimed at reducing surgical infection rates at a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone is being hailed a success.

Mercy Ships’ Education, Training, and Advocacy (ETA) department is supporting the new initiative at Connaught Hospital in partnership with the Sterile Processing Education Charitable Trust (SPECT). As a component of its Safer Surgery program, 20 nurses attended a two-week, hands-on training about sterilization processes.

SPECT is a nonprofit organization founded in 2013 to address a critical gap in healthcare: the lack of effective sterile processing education and training in resource-constrained settings.

“These participants are learning the standards for sterile processing in surgical environments, how to clean materials, how to store materials, and the best practices to keep a safe operating room so that they can reduce surgical site infections as much as possible,” said Massiami Soumahoro, Education Training and Advocacy Program Officer. “We want this training to contribute to strengthening the entire healthcare system in Sierra Leone.”

Research reveals that Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) (http://apo-opa.co/4ibUCGg) are linked to 38% of deaths in patients with SSI. In comparison to relatively high-income countries, the incidence rate of SSIs is much greater in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This is largely attributed to limited access to infection-control resources, such as proper sterilization equipment as well as infrastructure challenges that impact postoperative care and follow-up.

Studies conducted in various LMICs report that these elevated SSI rates pose significant health risks and economic burdens on both patients and healthcare systems. This underscores the need for targeted interventions to reduce infection rates in these regions.

To address these challenges, SPECT worked directly with nine nurses from Connaught Hospital’s Operating Theater and another 9 from the wards. Two participants were staff from the hospital’s Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) unit.

These nurses gathered in a training facility for two weeks, listening to lectures, watching presentations, and actively participating in sterile cleaning and processing exercises. They dressed in scrubs and gloved up, began soaking metal tools and devices in different mixes of water, and specialized soaps and chemicals. 

Participants began taking turns scrubbing over different metal tools, from scissors, tweezers, prongs, and scalpels; removing organic material that had become caught in their intricate grooves. They inspected each other’s work, providing feedback and tips as each nurse took a turn at a soapy bowl. 

Each one learned what to do at different stages, from how to prepare a cleaning station to the correct disposal of the dirty water, ensuring that tools would not be contaminated after they had been cleaned.

Larry Lawrence, an operating theater nurse, said the course helped him greatly.

“This training has helped me understand how to sterilize the instruments properly, immediately after an operation. We’ll also be able to go back and train other staff on how to do this,” he said. “The rate of infection in the hospital will get better through the intervention of Mercy Ships.”

Another participant, Kardiatu Kamara, a nurse in Connaught’s oncology ward, echoed the sentiment.

“This course is important because if we keep on working without sterile processing, we’ll create many burdens in our health sectors. If we treat patients without using these sterilized processes, or if we use instruments without processing them, we’ll find out that we have so many cases of infection. As a result, it will cause a burden to the government, health workers, and patients,” she said.

Mercy Ships ETA Director, Suzanne Thomas added: “There is now a small working group of participants who are developing standard operating procedures for sterile processing. This will help guide those involved in sterile processing to maintain good standards of practice. Mercy Ships and SPECT will continue to follow up to see how the learning is being put into practice through the Safer Surgery program.”

To learn more about how Mercy Ships is preparing the next generation of healthcare workers in Sierra Leone, visit Mercy Ships Africa (http://apo-opa.co/3CZpEkv).