In May 2011 KEHPCA supported the health and research symposium Research Utilization in health care provision: From practice to practice. Organized by the University of Dundee’s Distance Learning Masters of Palliative Care students and Master of Nursing students in the city of Nairobi, the symposium provided broad opportunities for participants to engage in meaningful debates and conversations.
The theme offered a broad range of topics with a number of interesting aspects focusing on research utilization in Kenya, and was conceived in honour of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission to crown the wealth of knowledge gained through these courses.
Sub-themes included assessing Evidence based practice in Kenya, the role of research in accelerating the attainment of Millennium Development Goals, and exploring emerging issues in non-communicable disease for palliative care practice.
The symposium was opened by Caroline Mbindyo, E-learning Programme Manager, AMREF, who read a welcome speech on behalf of Dr Peter Ngatia, Director of Capacity Building, AMREF.
Eight freenote presentations were made, including Assessing total pain in the terminally ill cancer patients
in Kenyan public healthcare system (Dr. Robai Gakunga), Assessment tools in palliative care (Dr John Weru), and the Impact of fungating wounds on the quality of life of cancer patients (Joyce Marete).
The symposium presented a unique opportunity for past and current University of Dundee Distance Learning students from all over Kenya to meet, share experiences and exchange ideas with each other, and was attended by over 60 health care professionals.