Professor Knut Wester from Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen is in charge of the programme, and has more aims than medical training only.
-Only if we also train them to teach neurosurgery will it be possible to train enough neurosurgical specialists.
-I just want them to call me by my first name: Knut. In Ethiopia, Professors and Doctors are called by their titles when students address them, but I don’t want that, as it signals some distance between the students and their teachers.
The Chapel at Myungsung Medical Centre has a dual purpose, in addition to worshipping; it can also be used as a lecturing hall. Knut Wester has three students in attendance when the Embassy of Norway pays a visit, Tewodros Mindale, Abdi Deresu and Yordanos Ashege are all from Jimma University, and fairly fresh in the program. Yordanos is also the first female student to take part and hopefully: the first woman to be trained in neurosurgery in Ethiopia.
Their aim is to become neurosurgeons fully capable of training more neurosurgeons, a medical competence badly needed in Ethiopia, with less than 1 neurosurgeon per 25 million inhabitants. Neurosurgery deals with head and spine injuries, tumors and malformations like hydrocephalus, a disease in children caused by a failure of drainage of brain fluid. The disease can cause blindness and severe mental disabilities. It is easy to operate, but that needs training and equipment, which is the most important aspect of the training programme.
-So far we have had 12 doctors altogether in the programme. Two of those have completed their training, and become “neurosurgical teachers”, fully capable of teaching others. Their knowledge will trickle over to others, thus increasing the number of neurosurgeons in Ethiopia, says Knut Wester.
From the Ethiopian side, Addis Abeba Univbersity, Jimma University and Tikur Anbessa ( meaning Black Lion) University Hospital are involved, with their Norwegian counterparts from the University of Bergen/ Haukeland University Hospital. The Ethiopian students spend most of their time in Ethiopia, with the exception of a six months visit to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen.
-We emphasize on carrying out the programme here in Ethiopia, because our experience tells us that if you educate someone in their own country, they will stay there and be of benefit, as opposed to training them abroad, a strategy that may cause them to remain in the country where they receive the training, and thus contribute to the “brain drain”, says Knut Wester.
Read more about Norwegian Neurosurgeouns in Ethiopia in Norwegian at http://www.kpk.no/index.cgi?art=5835
http://www.dagensmedisin.no/nyheter/2010/01/29/etiopias-nevrokirurgiske-h/index.xml