Specialist: Staff need refresher courses

Islands, Normal
Source:

The National, Tuesday October 8th, 2013

 THE treatment of HIV is a rapidly changing area of medicine, highlighting the need to train   health workers in the country, a medical specialist says.

Dr John Millan, a HIV surveillances advisor with the National Department of Health, said they needed to know new guidelines in order to prescribe the appropriate care and treatment from hospitals, 

He was speaking  during the closing of the New Guinea Islands prescribers workshop in Kokopo last Friday.

The two-week workshop, which cost about K200,000, was to train health workers including nurses, nurse aids and specialist doctors to give care and treatment at their respective hospitals and HIV clinics.

Millan said HIV treatment continued to change over the years and the department continued to train health workers according to the new guidelines.

He said health workers trained in the past were required to undergo refresher training courses and informed about the new changes.

“So with HIV, every time the treatment changes with new drugs coming in and some to be drop out, the department’s responsibility is to adapt to those changes and train health care workers.”