In the week of 8 – 12 April 2024 the Children's Nursing Development Unit welcomed two visitors – Dr Niall Martin (Consultant Burns Surgeon) and Nicole Lee (Burns Matron) – from the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust, UK. They then accompanied Minette, Ilana and Clare from CNDU, plus Samuel Makubo, current MNCN student on a practice and learning needs assessment visit to the Cape Winelands East sub-district. 

This was part of the Strengthening Paediatric Burns Care project which is led by the Children’s Hospital Trust. The project has three key objectives, one of which is ‘Upskilling and supporting of healthcare workers to confidently assess and treat child burn injuries’. The Children's Nursing Development Unit was asked to lead achievement of this objective and we quickly secured a grant from the THET (Tropical Health and Education Trust) to fund the first 18 months of the work. 

The first goal of the visit was to gain a better understanding of the profile (location, age, type of injury) of children and of their current care pathways from burn injury through to tertiary care (if needed) and back to full rehabilitation. The second goal was to hear the perceived capacity of people and services at the various service levels and to better understand individual learning needs. We achieved this through a series of clinical site visits at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Worcester Hospital, Ceres Hospital, Primary Health Care Clinics and Mobile Clinics in the Witzenberg municipality and also a farm clinic (where we also got to pick apples fresh from the trees 😊). We met fabulous, capable and keen people along the way, from a range of different health care professions. We also heard their, and the children’s, stories and experiences at a participative workshop, attended by 40 plus people. 

Insights from the week were plentiful and the Friday at the end of the week was used to collate all that was learnt, seen and heard to start the design of a comprehensive training programme. Collaborative planning will continue with Niall and Nicole and news will be shared when training opportunities commence. We are excited to see how this partnership and the project evolves from here.