Conference participation

Senior consultant neuropsychiatrist Dr Nikhil Patel participated in the Annual National Conference of the Indian Psychiatric Society (ANCIPS) held at Kochi between January 19 and 22. This year, the conference theme was Psychiatry: Mysteries to Molecules. He chaired a symposium on Forensic Psychiatry - Matrimonial Relief for Persons with Mental Illness. Dr Patel was also a panelist in the symposium Guidelines for Marriage & Mental Health Issues in Women.

Training programme for health workers

Twenty five health workers engaged in identifying and following up the treatment of tuberculosis patients participated in a training programme organised at the Radha Mohan Mehrotra Trauma Centre at Abu Road on June 13.

The workers were updated about the newly commissioned Integrated Counselling & Testing Centre at J Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre (Mt Abu) and also addressed on identifying HIV patients, counselling patients, and on building successful teams. Dr D K Shrivastava, ICTC manager & senior medical officer, J Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre; Rajendra Singh, project officer, Prayas, an NGO working for eartquake affected victims in Kutch-Bhuj (Gujarat) and Brother Shrinidhi, assistant manager - HR, Radha Mohan Mehrotra Global Hospital Trauma Centre facilitated the training.

HR Update: ConnectIT Workshops

Sister Shivali, senior asistant - Purchase & Claims, and Sister Manisha, assistant manager - HR, attended the NASSCOM's Foundation's ConnectIT Workshop organised by GuideStar India (http://www.guidestarindia.org/) in Udaipur from May 3 to 6, 2010. The training focused on advanced usage of MS Office and new media online tools, such as blogs, Twitter, FaceBook etc.

Training in Communication Skills

J Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre organised five retreats to train 85 staff members posted at its Mount Abu and Abu Road units in Communication Skills. The sessions were facilitated by Brother Shrinidhi and Brother EV Gireesh at the Gyan Sarovar Academy for a Better World. The one-day programmes included topics like "Communication - Let's Talk", "Building Blocks - Me, My Words and the Big Impact", "Pass the Baton - Learning to give up and to pass on", "Look, Listen & Speak - The Official Way", and so on.

HR Update: Focus on staff skills

We are grateful to overseas travellers who share their experience and learning with our staff. In recent days, we have taken benefit from two distinguished guests:

On October 19, Agnes Tam, clinical risk project manager, Clinical Governance Hunter New England Area Health Service, Australia addressed the staff of Global Hospital on "Assessing patient needs at the time of admission and clinical handover."

On November 2, Ken O'Donnell, the coordinator of the Brahma Kumaris Centres in South America who also has experience as a management consultant in quality development and strategic planning, delivered a lecture on "How to get the best of your people."

HR Update: Novel training programme

Dr Sudhir Singh, consultant ophthalmologist & head - Department of Ophthalmology at J Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre, had the opportunity to attend a training programme aboard the Flying Eye Hospital DC-10 when it touched down in Jaipur in early October. His training sub-speciality was vertical and complex strabismus.

Dr Robert O Hoffman, MD, professor, Paediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus at the University Health Care Moran Eye, Salt Lake City, Utah was Dr Singh's mentor for this programme. Dr Hoffman took lectures on various aspects related to strabismus as well as discussed cases and performed surgeries with the trainees (the photograph below shows Dr Hoffman operating a case aboard the Flying Eye Hospital assisted by Dr Singh).

"The Flying Eye Hospital staff was very supporting and encouraging. I sincerely thank Orbis International and J Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre, Mount Abu for this opportunity," said Dr Singh, about his experience.

HR Updates: Eyecare team

The Global Hospital & Research Centre trust is committed to delivering quality health care to all. As quality improvement is an ongoing process, this makes it is essential to continuously update the skills of the people staffing its institutions. The J Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre at Mount Abu and the Radha Mohan Mehrotra Trauma Centre and P C Parmar Global Hospital Eye Care Centre at Abu Road achieve this by sponsoring further training of staff members at prestigious health institutes across the country.

In recent months, several members of the eyecare team stationed at Mount Abu and Abu Road attended courses to enhance their skills:

• In May, optometrist Rajesh Sahoo successfully completed a fellowship in contact lenses at Dr Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital, New Delhi
• In July, optometrist J P Singh completed a one month certificate course in Community Outreach & Social Marketing of Eye Care Services at the Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology in Madurai.
• In September, consultant ophthalmologists Dr Seema Laad and Dr Sudhir Singh, staff nurse - OT Kavita Maske, equipment maintenance engineer Dilip Prajapati, and ophthalmic nursing assistant Krishna Kumar participated in the ORBIS DC10 Flying Eye Hospital Program organised at Jaipur.

HR Update: Workshop attendance

Dr Andhul Wadhwa, physician, attended a live workshop cum conference on Echocardiography at Sterling Hospitals, Vadodara, from July 10 to 12. The conference covered aspects of echocardiography in heart disease, critical care and pre-operative screening. Experts from various parts of the country shared useful tips with the participants. Dr Wadha has been conducting echocardiography's on the Philips Envisor machine at Global Hospital (Mt Abu) since the last two years and according to him, "This exposure proved to be a real support in upgrading my skills."