Sigrun Aase Holen is a norwegian theater nurse with more than 20 years of experience and she just returned from her 5th training mission to Sierra Leone with Capacare. Along with surgeon Lesley Hunt she has been teaching basic surgical skills to our class of October 2017. Among other things the STPs have had the chance to learn surgical scrubbing, gowning and gloving, skin preparation, as well as the basics of surgical instruments and techniques.
Sigrun has witnessed a lot of improvements since her first visit in 2011, but acknowledges that some old habits die hard. In the surgical domain the “devil is in the details”, which can be a great challenge in a low resource setting. Sigrun is however full of praise for the new STP-students that started their training in October. She found them practically oriented, eager to learn and with a solid academic foundation. If you want to learn more about becoming a trainer click here.
Sigrun Aase Holen on a previous training mission along with the students of Class of 2011 and 2012