MOH training and scholarship directorate has started training of 95 interns on the ways of dealing with AH1N1 in coordination with King Saud University. Organized at the academic tower of King Saud Medical Complex the program aims at creating a core of trainers for educating teachers and school children.
The training is part of a set of workshops to be organized for preparing inturns for health awareness works, said the manager of the academy Dr. Afaf Al-Tuwaijri.
She said the physicians would execute health awareness campaigns for teachers and schoolchildren at all levels of the general education in the Kingdom. "We need to confront the current epidemic through enlightening school children and teachers at all school levels", she said.
She said the physicians shall work in accordance with the preventive measures adopted by MOH for controlling the epidemic.
On the other hand MOH has accomplished training of 600 school health physicians in the different parts of the Kingdom on early discovery of the disease, epidemic surveillance, reporting methods, and disease control. The training has been organized in 6 major cities, namely Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Khober, Al-Madeenah, Abha, and Buraidah, within the context of the memo of understanding, swine flu epidemic executive procedures document which has been signed recently between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, said MOH official spokesman Dr. Khalid Al-Marghalani.
He said the training sessions in Riyadh were opened on Sunday in presence of HRH the Minister of Education and His Highness the Minister of Health. A similar program was accomplished in Jeddah and Al-Khober on the same day and in Al-Madeenah, Buraidah and Abha on Monday. The MOH preventive medicine specialists in the different provinces have participated in the training, in addition to trainers from the MOH General Directorate of Training.
MOH has also started training of 500 interns in 6 provinces within a plan to train 66000 teachers. The first training course is scheduled to open today in Jeddah for King Abdul Aziz University graduates and Um Al-Qura University graduates. Other similar programs shall start tomorrow at Al-Khober Learning Hospital for King Faisal University graduates, at King Saud Complex in Riyadh, and at MOH training centers in Buraidah, Al-Madeenah, and Aseer provinces.
MOH has opted the method of preparing trainers in order to create a core for training school health personnel and teachers in the different provinces.
The training program includes lectures on swine flu, the activities and procedures to be followed in schools, and ways of prevention and treatment. It concentrates on epidemic, diagnostic, treatment, preventive and health awareness aspects, in addition to administrative, supervisory, coordination, and integration aspects. A practical training on measuring temperature, washing hands, dressing masks is also included.
MOH is also engaged in health awareness programs for providing necessary information on swine flu to school children and children.