Essential Emergency and Critical Care Training in South Sudan
At Al Sabbah Children's Hospital in Juba, South Sudan’s only paediatric hospital, a new initiative is helping frontline healthcare workers provide life-saving care to critically ill children. Frida Aronsson, an ICU nurse, and Johanna Larsson, a paediatrician, from the Swedish organisation Scandinavian Doctors, recently led a training course in Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) for local staff.
EECC Training classroom session
This training is particularly important as the hospital prepares to open a High-Dependency Care Unit (HCU). But to make this unit effective, the hospital’s staff need the right skills and knowledge.
What Did the Training Cover?
A total of 16 healthcare workers—nine nurses, six doctors, and one clinical officer—took part in the course. The training, developed by The EECC Network, focused on recognising and responding to critical illness using simple, effective interventions that can be applied in any hospital setting. The course is freely available at www.eeccglobal.org/training.
Key areas included:
Identifying critical illness early using vital signs
Airway management, including positioning, clearing obstructions, and using basic airway devices
Breathing support, such as oxygen therapy and ventilation
Circulation management, including stopping bleeding, fluid resuscitation, and treating anaphylaxis
Responding to unconsciousness, including seizure care and glucose management
Other essential care, such as infection control, pain management, and early mobilisation
To make the training more relevant to local needs, basic hygiene was added, and the content was adapted to focus on paediatric care.
Hands on practical session
What Did the Participants Think?
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The presentation materials were clear, and the training brought the staff together, strengthening teamwork across different departments.
Many participants wished for more hands-on practice, especially for airway management, but they plan to continue training new staff in the HCU and hopefully expand EECC training to other hospital units.
EECC Training participants
Why This Matters
In a country with limited critical care facilities, training like this helps improve patient outcomes by ensuring healthcare workers can provide timely and effective essential emergency critical care. The new HCU at Al Sabbah Children’s Hospital will benefit from having trained staff who can recognise and manage critical illness, and there is potential for similar training to be adopted in other hospitals across South Sudan.