Partnership is casting the net wider to tackle stroke

Health research in Zimbabwe is set to benefit from the addition of two new specialised stroke units which have been set up at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo and Gweru Provincial Hospital under the Partnership in Education Training and Research Advancement (PETRA).

These units, which are part of the medical training and research of the National University of Science and Technology and the Midlands State University respectively, will continue to tackle the high mortality rate of stroke patients in Zimbabwe.

The consortium involves the faculties of medicine and health sciences at the University of Zimbabwe, Midlands State University, the National University of Science and Technology and the Africa University’s department of health sciences as well as Stanford University and the University of Colorado in Denver, United States.

First launched at Harare’s Parirenyatwa Hospital in 2019 where the University of Zimbabwe medical training takes place, the US National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center extended a US$3 million grant to implement goals that include capacity development and to evaluate and expand available health professions education and research approaches throughout Zimbabwe.

Medical students attached to hospital medical wards and stroke units are benefiting as the PETRA initiative stimulated research in the related areas of stroke and other common morbidities.

In an interview with University World News, Dr Rudo Gwini, the coordinator of PETRA and a lecturer at the National University of Science and Technology, said it is expected that, within five years, all Zimbabwe universities that train health professionals will have developed and integrated the programmes developed through the initiative into their curricula, thereby ultimately improving healthcare and patient outcomes.

Gwini said they are going to offer particular training in the treatment of stroke patients.

“It is going to improve service delivery to the patient because stroke is a multidisciplinary problem. So, it means we are bringing all the other disciplines that have been on the periphery on board so that we can then improve the outcome for the patient,” she said.

“We thought, instead of going in as individual institutions, it would be better to work as a consortium.

“We will still be taking care of stroke patients in the stroke units of the respective university hospitals, but the way we are going to do it and the approach we are going to use is going to be different,” she said.

“With this new development, we are hoping that we will be engaging with other members of the health profession.

“We will be able to come together and try to assist the community and try to improve the outcome. For example, we were not engaging the social workers [before]. But we will be engaging them [from now on] to ensure that they help us with what is happening with our patients.”

Gwini said the initiative will be rolled out to other institutions in the country.

Before the PETRA project was launched at the University of Zimbabwe, 25% of all stroke patients in Zimbabwe died within the first week of admission. This has since been reduced to between 7% and 8%.

Building care and research

The Midlands State University said the setting up of the unit was led by PETRA’s project co-director, Professor Jonathan Matenga.

“The PETRA project brings together stroke physicians, nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists, speech and occupational therapists, social workers and physiotherapists in a collaborative approach meant to reduce death and disability in stroke admissions,” the university said in a statement.

“The programme further intends to promote the early detection of stroke symptoms to allow for immediate mobilisation and rehabilitation of the affected. It provides detailed information and educates patients and their next-of-kin during the patients’ hospital stay.”

Matenga said in the statement that, if the Gweru Provincial Hospital Stroke Unit and the other three pilot hospitals yield positive results, the programme will eventually be rolled out at all hospitals countrywide.

The overarching goal of PETRA is to establish inter-professional education and collaborative practice and to disseminate and implement science research at the consortium institutions, according to the PETRA website.

In addition, the initiative will tap into expertise and experience from long-standing US collaborating institutions to support the inter-professional education of students, health professionals and faculty.

Developing a cadre of faculty leaders who are capable of sustaining the initiative’s innovations in health professions education and promoting research career development is another goal.

In this instance, mentorship and the increased use of information communication technology among health professionals to engender their retention in rural areas is being advocated.