Training methodology
The IMEESC training package includes the WHO minimum standards for emergency and essential surgical care and may be adapted to country-specific needs (e.g., translations and local adaptation). It lays out the basic skills that the trainers will be expected to teach in the training workshops at various levels of health facilities.
Training equipment does not require the use of mannequins (which is often not readily available). Trainers can use various resources such as 'role play', animal models, locally made splints, oxygen cylinder, and Ambu bag. This also includes posters for HIV prevention, checklists on surgical procedures, and patient and health personnel safety. The workshop is interactive, with hands-on skills training and day-to-day clinical scenarios being given more importance in discussions and teaching than lectures. E-learning has been found to be useful in the workshops.
Training workshops are organized preferably in a rural or district hospital setting, thus giving the participants the ability to easily adapt and organize other training programs at the first-referral level health facility.