The Gambia – Swansea Vision 2020 Eye Link

Mamundow Marong is a nurse assistant at SZRECC. Following the last visit of the Swansea team to The Gambia a case study was written about Mam’s role in testing children within the Eye Care Centre see below:

Mam works as a nurse assistant at the Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Care Centre (SZRECC). She was initially working in the operating theatres in the hospital but had an opportunity to move to the busy out-patient clinic as someone was needed to test children’s vision in the dedicated paediatric clinics.

Before the link was established children who attended the clinic had no formal assessment of vision. There was limited equipment and no staff had training in this area. Once the link between SZRECC and the Ophthalmology department in Singleton Hospital was formed an activity plan was written in partnership. This included a proposal to have dedicated paediatric clinics, trained staff and for all children attending the clinic to have their visual acuity measured.

Orthoptists from Swansea visited The Gambia as part of a team of doctors, nurses, optometrists and pharmacists. They identified the training needs and brought the equipment necessary to make a children’s eye clinic a reality. Subsequent visits illustrated how progress was being made but staff changes made continuity difficult.

Mam was very keen to learn the skills necessary to test children – both measuring vision, testing for squint and assessing motility so was moved to work in this area of SZRECC. At a recent visit from the Swansea team Mam showed initiative and enthusiasm for learning and by the end of the week she was able to use appropriate age related tests to assess children’s vision, use the cover test to demonstrate squint and take measurements using vertical and horizontal prism bars.

Not content with this knowledge she also wanted to improve her documentation skills so was taught how to record her findings in the hospital record using abbreviations recognised by the British and Irish Orthoptic Society. At the end of the week Mam received a copy of a signed document detailing the skills she had learned which she kept as evidence of professional development.

Thanks to Mam and her dedication in future all children attending the clinic at SZRECC will have a full assessment which will assist the ophthalmologists in making a diagnosis and planning the appropriate treatment. Accurate measurement of squint will enable patients to have corrective surgery in the future – something that has not been available before.

Regular communication has been established between Mam and the Orthoptists in Swansea as a means of continuous learning and support. Protocols for prescribing glasses and guidance for documentation have been shared. Future visits will build on the knowledge Mam has learnt and she has also been encouraged to teach others the skills she has learnt enabling succession planning for the centre.

Suzanne Martin

Orthoptist, Singleton Hospital, Swansea

April 2014