JEDDAH, 28 December 2003 — King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh and Roche Pharmaceuticals Saudi Arabia are launching an initiative called Hepatitis Training for Nurses.
Open to all nurses in the Kingdom, it aims to improve the management of viral hepatitis B and C in Saudi Arabia and build the counseling skills of nurses.
The program takes the form of a two-day seminar in various locations across the Kingdom and will be conducted by specialists from KFSH.
“In January, we will begin developing the training program and in April, the workshops will start in Riyadh and will last as long as there is funding,” Heather Byrne, head of nursing education and research department at KFSH, told Arab News.
Hepatitis is a disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis virus — A through E. The Kingdom has nearly 500,000 hepatitis C cases, according to estimates, despite a recent drop in exposure rates. The prevalence rate in the Kingdom was put at 2.7 percent. The complexity of viral hepatitis infection requires intensive education both for patients and their relatives.
“What probably feeds the current inadequacies in the management of the disease is that there is such a wide variety of problems peculiar to such a wide variety of patients that one single approach will neither suffice nor work,” said Dr. Khaled Al-Shibani, deputy head of medical and clinical operations at KFSH. “It usually takes a lot of time to educate the patients about the disease, its treatment and the different systemic side-effects it can have. And yet, time is unfortunately what many medical health care providers can not always provide,” he said at the media press launch of the program.
This is where nurses play an important role. “Nurses are the front-line caregivers and they are the most in contact with the patients and their families,” Heather Byrne said.
“It’s one of those hidden diseases — that is why we don’t have good records of the number of cases; but perhaps with this program we can have a better idea,” Byrne said.
