Trauma and Injury

The Challenge

Over half of deaths in low- and middle-income countries are caused by conditions that could be addressed by effective emergency care. However, emergency medicine is still a nascent field in all of the countries where Seed works.

In Uganda, for example, fewer than nine percent of emergency ward staff have been trained on how to manage medical emergencies, fewer than 27 percent of all medical facilities have permanent staff in their emergency units, and less than 25 percent of high-volume health centers offer 24-hour emergency care. Further, accredited programs to train physicians in emergency care at the graduate level are few and far between. Lack of affordable and reliable ambulance services and lack of robust referral systems also complicate the ability to serve communities with the emergency services they need.

Seed’s Unique Approach

To advance emergency medicine care, Seed works hand-in-hand with our partners to develop national emergency medical services policies, guidelines, and standards; offer sustained emergency care training and mentorship by embedding physician and nurse educators at regional hospitals and academic institutions; and streamline national emergency care referral processes, including establishing call and dispatch centers.

Seed works with hospitals and high-volume health centers to train an emerging generation of critical care nurses and physicians to provide basic emergency care. Seed’s curriculum covers working in teams to prioritize emergencies, attending to and stabilize patients, responding to emergencies both within and outside the hospital environment, documenting patient cases, and providing care to patients in ambulances as needed during transfer.