Angela Onwuzoo In a bid to improve the lives of children and adults with spina bifida in Nigeria, Festus Fajemilo Foundation has trained no fewer than 81 nurses and eight community outreach workers on the management of bowel and bladder incontinence associated with the condition. Both bowel and bladder incontinence are the major challenge affecting personas with spina bifida. The foundation is a non-profit organisation established to provide succour for persons/families affected by spina bifida and hydrocephalus The nurses drawn from eight teaching hospitals across the country were trained on intermittent catheterization to enhance their capacity to deliver quality healthcare services to those with spina bifida.
The workshop organised by the FFF in Lagos recently in collaboration with Shine Charity, a national charity organisation dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of people affected by spina bifida and/or hydrocephalus in the United Kingdom. The training seeks to build and strengthen the skills, knowledge, and capacity of healthcare professionals in Nigeria to improve the life chances and futures of babies, children, and young adults with spina bifida. The capacity-building was supported by the UK Department of Health and Social Care.
Facilitated by experts from the UK and Nigeria, the workshop looked at the different interventions available to persons with spina bifida to lead a meaningful which includes Clean Intermittent Catheterisation, bowel washouts, and measuring bladder pressure, among others Giving deeper insight into the workshop, Co-founder & Executive Director, Afolabi Fajemilo, said they were currently working with nurses in eight public teaching hospitals. He said they were scaling up services to reach at least 250 children with spina bifida in the country by 2025. He said, “The two-workshop for nurses from public health facilities and community outreach workers in incontinence care and management is being organized to enhance the skills, knowledge, and capacity to be able to deliver quality continence care and services across their various health facilities.
“It is also one of the activities under the Savings Lives! Improving Future Project is being sponsored by the United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Care and it’s one of the projects under the current Global Health Workforce Programme which is targeted at three African countries, Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana to strengthen their health workforce and systems following the effects of COVID-19 and the brain drain.” Fajemilo said FFF trains nurses in public health facilities to support families who have children with spina bifida, to ensure they live a life of dignity. “We are supporting the nurses through their places of work.
So, currently, we are working with eight public teaching hospitals, namely;agos University Teaching Hospital; University College Hospital Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex; University of Benin Teaching Hospital; Rivers State University Teaching Hospital; Federal Medical Center Umuahia; Usman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital; Sokoto, and the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital. “ We are supporting the hospitals to be able to have this as one of their hospital’s regular services”, he said. The executive director said children with spina bifida do have associated challenges, which include leg deformities, poor sensation in their lower limbs, partial or total paralysis in the lower limbs, and more devastating bowel and incontinence.
Stressing the importance of prevention, he noted that a pregnant woman who is taking folic acid will reduce the incidence by 70 percent. “So, we advocate precautionary use of folic acid. So everyone of reproductive age must take folic acid.
“There is a management procedure and what we are targeting in this project is bladder and bowel inconvenience that they come down with. “We trained the nurses and outreach workers in clean intermittent catheterization. Under this project, we are enhancing the capacity of 81 nurses and eight outreach nurses across the country”, he said.
According to him, persons with spina bifida usually experience difficulty in controlling the movements of their bowels and bladder because of a neuropathic (nerve-damaged) bladder and bowel. “With no continence intervention, a significant proportion of children with spina bifida will experience kidney problems, which without treatment would result in renal failure.” They will also experience social issues such as isolation, low self-esteem, and possible psychological problems that may negatively impact their mental health”, he added.
The CEO of Shine UK, Kate Steele said the lack of continence management could lead to overactive bladder muscle, storing urine at high pressures, which might harmfully impact the lives of persons with spina bifida. Some of the participants who could not hide their joy commended the organizer’s training which they noted would improve their work and outcomes of persons with spina bifida An outreach worker attached to LUTH, Omowumi Mary Folaranmi, told our correspondent that the training was insightful and would help enhance their work. “One of the goals of this project is to enhance independent living for children with spina bifida.
But there are instances where some of the beneficiaries have multiple disabilities, and the parent cannot communicate or demonstrate the procedure of clean intermittent catheterization to them”, she said. Also speaking, an outreach worker with the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Peace Edward, said outreach workers have a role to act as liaison officers between families of persons with spina bifida and the hospitals. Edward commended FFF for the interventions so far and the training, which according to her has been impactful, insightful, and with a lot of things to learn.
She said, “This is my first time doing face-to-face training because we usually have periodic virtual training sessions. However, this has been engaging and I have broader knowledge in continence management.” Copyright PUNCH All rights reserved.
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