Grenada

GRENADA CASE 2: AVOIDING UNNECESSARY ISOLATION OF HEALTH CARE WORKERS

Background

From 23-25 March 2020, a PAHO mission was deployed to Grenada to review the progress in implementation of the national COVID-19 preparedness and response plan, to assess hospital readiness for COVID-19 response, and, to train health care professionals on COVID-19 related surveillance, IPC and case management, and human resources for health staffing, mobility and scaling. The team arrived the same day the Ministry of Health publicly announced the detection of the first COVID-19 case on the island.

Situation

Five intensive care unit (ICU) Cuban nurses have just arrived in the country. The Chief Nursing Officer informed that the Cuban nurses were not in their posts yet, because there were some concerns about risk of exposure among local nurses, since their Cuban counterparts were coming from a country with several confirmed cases. The country was considering the possibility of quarantine. None of the nurses presented any signs or symptoms.

Actions

PAHO team recommended the application of WHO Assessment of risk exposure for health workers in health facilities and presented the main components to health authorities. A day after, the country applied the Assessment to the IUC Cuban nurses and found that the risk of exposure was either minimal or non-existent. The nurses were deployed to their units the same day.

Lessons learned

  • Simple measures can avoid decisions that affect the availability of much needed health care workers
  • PAHO/WHO guidelines and tools can be extremely useful when the country understands and foresees its practicality and application
  • National protocols for management of exposed healthcare workers are required
  • PAHO played an important role as an expert health agency and as a catalyst for actions required for COVID-19 response
 
PAHO Deployment Team in Grenada:
Dr. Fiona Anthony
Dr. Rufus Ewing
Dr. E. Benjamín Puertas
Dr. Jean Marie Rwangabwoba

GRENADA CASE 1: IPC TRAINING AND WORK ISSUES AT THE ISOLATION UNIT

Background

From 23-25 March 2020, a PAHO mission was deployed to Grenada to review the progress in implementation of the national COVID-19 preparedness and response plan, to assess hospital readiness for COVID-19 response, and, to train health care professionals on COVID-19 related surveillance, IPC and case management, and human resources for health staffing, mobility and scaling. The team arrived the same day the Ministry of Health publicly announced the detection of the first COVID-19 case on the island.

Situation

On March 26, PAHO deployment team trained approximately 80 health care workers (face to face and virtual training) in Infection Prevention Control and PPE use. The training included practical demonstration on donning and duffing. The MOH Director of Hospital Services told PAHO´s team that she was having issues with auxiliary staff to get them to clean the isolation unit, since they refused to enter the area for fear of getting infected with the coronavirus. The nurses who participated in the training took the initiative to do the cleaning themselves, since they felt assured that following the protective measures the risk was minimal. The auxiliary staff went back to work the next day.

Lessons learned

  • A proper training on IPC and PPE can contribute to reduce fear and anxiety among health care workers
  • Support and solidarity among health care  workers allowed proper and continuing functioning of an essential unit for COVID-19 response.
  • PAHO played an important role as an expert health agency and as a catalyst for actions required for COVID-19 response.
 
PAHO Deployment Team in Grenada:
Dr. Fiona Anthony
Dr. Rufus Ewing
Dr. E. Benjamín Puertas
Dr. Jean Marie Rwangabwoba