Our first medical outreach grant awarded to Sister Sue Higgins

We’re thrilled to today award our first grant related to our medical outreach project.

Funding from SicKids will support a registered sick children’s nurse (RSCN), Sister Sue Higgins, from North Manchester General Hospital to travel to Cambodia this week as part of a shared learning partnership. Sister Higgins will teach Cambodian health workers the benefits of baby massage, assist in health centre clinics and will undertake outreach medical visits with our Trustee Professor Andrew Rowland.

The grant further supports an ongoing partnership set up last year between The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, the University of Salford and M’Lop Tapang, a Cambodian non-profit organisation that works with over 5000 children and families living on and around the streets and beaches of Sihanoukville in Cambodia.

Sue already participates in monthly Skype clinics where knowledge is exchanged between the three organisations. Thanks in part to SicKids funding, she will travel to Cambodia for a week, from 21 May.

As well as teaching baby massage technique (which can encourage bonding between a mother and her baby) in areas where drug abuse amongst mothers can be a problem, Sister Higgins will also advise Cambodian health workers about triage assessment skills.

As part of the knowledge exchange trip, Sue will learn about how Cambodian health workers safeguard vulnerable children, an area they excel in. She will then put this into practice at North Manchester General Hospital and share her learning with her colleagues at the Trust and university.

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages North Manchester General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Rochdale Infirmary and community services, has granted Sister Higgins ‘Special Leave’ to travel to Cambodia.

Sister Sue Higgins, from the Children’s Emergency Department at North Manchester General Hospital said:

“I have been an RSCN since 1987 and have worked in several different areas of paediatrics. In every area, regardless of the nursing skills required, a knowledge of safeguarding vulnerable children has always been essential to underpin these skills. As I have gained more experience I feel that I have become more skilled at assessing different situations, however I genuinely feel that being exposed to how a different culture approaches safeguarding vulnerable children can only be beneficial to my work and to the Trust.”