JEDDAH, 1 June 2004 — The second hepatology workshop for nurses will be organized at King Fahd Hospital here today, according to Sandra Jackson, perioperative nursing education coordinator at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh.
"The previous workshop, the first of its kind in the region, was organized at KFSH & RC last month," said Jackson, who has written a workbook for nurses on Hepatitis C.
"The objective is to educate nurses in the Kingdom on hepatitis and in particular Hepatitis C," she said. According to the health professional, in extreme cases, Hepatitis C requires liver transplantation.
The workshops will contribute to increasing awareness and educating nurses about treatment and necessary precautions. "This will firstly benefit the patients who we treat as they are our priority. Secondly for us as professionals, we are in an ever evolving cycle of learning. Hepatitis C has been quoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the major diseases which we have to try to control in the next few years," she explained.
"Therefore the education of health professionals is the stepping stone for the control of this disease," she added.
The participants will be given a certificate of attendance and credit hours for continuing education from the Saudi Council of Nurses. The workshop is being sponsored by Roche, an international pharmaceutical company.
