A training session for supervising physicians was organised at the end of November.
25 supervising physicians, who work under the National Tuberculosis Prevention, Supervision and Control Programme (PNPSCT), in Bucharest, attended the training session “Control of TB transmission in healthcare facilities” organised in November by the “Marius Nasta” Institute of Pulmonology. This training is part of the project “The Improvement of the Health of the Romanian Population through Enhanced Tuberculosis Control,” under the “Public Health Initiatives” programme, financed by the Norway Grants 2009-2014.
The training of supervising physicians is an important stage of a process that seeks to strengthen the capacity of the PNPSCT to prevent and control tuberculosis in Romania, as they are those who monitor the tuberculosis control activities in healthcare facilities and who train the medical staff of pulmonology hospitals around the country so that the disease may not be transmitted from the patients to the medical and auxiliary staff, to patient carers or other persons who come to the hospital. The aim of these staff training sessions is, among others, to create a common understanding of tuberculosis control activities among physicians and nurses, as well as to ensure their appropriate knowledge of the steps that have to be taken in order to prevent people from becoming ill with tuberculosis in hospitals, given that the risk the medical staff is exposed to is, according to estimates, three or four times higher than in the case of the general population.
During the training, the participants discussed the classification of tuberculosis among hospital-acquired diseases, the assessment of the risk of tuberculosis transmission in laboratories and during the specialised investigations (bronchoscopy, radioscopy, radiology), and about the respiratory protection measures for patients and the medical staff. The conclusion drawn at the end was that supervisor visits must not be seen an instrument for the control of healthcare facilities, but as exchanges of experiences between physicians, as pointed out by dr. Cristian Popa, from the “Marius Nasta” Institute of Pulmonology, one of the trainers.
