1 / 9

Safety and Cultural Sensitivity When Working Abroad

Safety in Clinical Settings. Inpatient and outpatient units are typically very crowdedMany patients will have Tb communicable GI pathogens or HIVTraditional hand washing facilities may be absentHand hygiene may not be the cultural normStrongly consider taking a supply of alcohol hand rub. . . S

helena
Download Presentation

Safety and Cultural Sensitivity When Working Abroad

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

    1. Safety and Cultural Sensitivity When Working Abroad Geoff Taylor Division of Infectious Diseases Acting Director – Global Health University of Alberta

    2. Safety in Clinical Settings Inpatient and outpatient units are typically very crowded Many patients will have Tb communicable GI pathogens or HIV Traditional hand washing facilities may be absent Hand hygiene may not be the cultural norm Strongly consider taking a supply of alcohol hand rub

    3. Safety in Clinical Settings In Africa, ~50-70% of inpatient medical unit patients may be HIV (+) HBV, HCV are also common Do not do your first invasive procedures in these settings Wear gloves during procedures even if it is not the cultural norm Care with disposal of sharps In the event of exposure , you should strongly consider ARV’s

    4. Risk and Prevention of Blood Borne Pathogens in Occupational Settings

    5. Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) following HIV exposure May reduce relative risk of HIV transmission by up to 80% ( ie average needlestick risk from 0.3% to <0.1%, absolute risk reduction ~0.2%) Defined exposure: Probable HIV(+) source patient Definite exposure -blood or defined body fluid -percutaneous/mucous membrane/ non intact skin Immediate (the sooner the better, but up to 3 days) initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy(2 or 3 drugs) Available in most urban settings. In remote settings availability less certain – consider taking a starting supply. Combivir® ( AZT + lamivudine) bid X 4 wks Third drug – protease inhibitor for very serious exposures DO NOT take nevirapine ( Viracept® ) or nevirapine containing compounds ( eg Triommune) for PEP – fatal hepatitis has occured

    6. General Safety Traffic accidents are the most likely cause of serious injury or disability. Consider avoiding highway travel at night. Evaluate the safety of any form of conveyance Evacuation insurance is a good buy

    7. Food and water safety Its not fun having a GI illness in a hot climate with poor health infrastructure and sketchy toilets Heated or peeled food only Bottled ( sealed ) or boiled liquids. No ice cubes. Hand hygiene

    8. Vaccines and drugs Expert advice ! rather than casual opinions of friends/relatives or clinical mentors Antimalarials mefloquine Malarone doxycycline Mosquito netting (impregnated) Antimotility/antinausea drugs HAV Yellow fever Typhoid Consider rabies depending on location and duration

    9. Medical and non-Medical Cultural Sensitivity Medical Remember, you’re there to learn and you are an ambassador of yourself, your family , U of A and Canada (no pressure!) Never use the phrase “Back home, we would…” As in ‘back home we would do an MRI….’ Non-Medical Non-Western countries are usually more culturally conservative. ‘When in Rome…’ The status of women may be different (though medically , women often occupy senior positions). Western women may be the target of unwanted attention.

More Related