{"id":139602,"date":"2025-01-13T14:35:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T19:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=139602"},"modified":"2025-01-13T14:35:16","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T19:35:16","slug":"teaching-wound-care-to-nurses-in-ghana-west-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=139602","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Wound Care to Nurses in Ghana, West Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Lorillie Soleta, DNP(center) teaching other nurses in Ghana, West Africa – Image provided by SLUHN<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

If Lorillie Soleta, DNP, had created a \u201cBest of\u201d list for 2024, you\u2019d likely find her recent volunteer medical education trip to Ghana, West Africa, on it. It\u2019s where she taught rehabilitation skills and advanced wound treatment to a group of 35 of the country\u2019s nurses who had little or no experience in these specialties.<\/p>\n

For a week in October, Soleta shared didactics and hand\u2019s-on training at the Kumasi-based Komfo Anoyke Teaching Hospital (KATH). Kumasi is the second largest city in Ghana and lies 90 minutes north-west of Accra, the capital. Ghana, a country of 30 million inhabitants, lies next to the\u00a0Gulf of Guinea<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Atlantic Ocean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many patients in Ghana suffer from pressure sores, amputation-related infections and diabetic wounds, and other skin conditions, as well as nerve-related gastro-intestinal and urologic disorders stemming from strokes and traumatic injuries. This economically and medically challenged country lacks the expertise and the resources to effectively prevent or address these and many other issues that plague this developing nation.<\/p>\n

Soleta, who resides in Salisbury Township and holds master\u2019s degrees in nursing and education and a doctorate in nursing practice (DNP), has been employed in St. Luke\u2019s Wound Management Center since 2019. Smart, affable and curious, she loves medical learning and, just as much, teaching the knowledge she has acquired over the 25 years she has spent in her profession. She has worked at St. Luke\u2019s for five years as a wound specialist and spent 13 years at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network as a rehabilitation specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very thankful to have received good training from Dr. Michael Hortner, wound care specialist and my mentor here at St. Luke\u2019s,\u201d said Soleta, a native of the Philippines who immigrated to the U.S.<\/p>\n

This was Soleta\u2019s second trip to Ghana as an expert-invited speaker for the International Rehabilitation Forum (IRF), a non-profit, Philadelphia-based organization. According to IRF\u2019s website, it is \u201ccommitted to expanding access to Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), empowering all individuals with physical limitations to unlock their full leadership potential, according to IRF\u2019s website.\u201d She made the trip in support of the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO) Rehabilitation 2030 initiative.<\/p>\n

The IRF paid her airfare, and Soleta took vacation time to go there and covered her other expenses. St. Luke\u2019s donated free wound dressings and medications, and the St. Luke\u2019s Simulation Center lent mannequins that Soleto used to teach rehab techniques. Soleta is thankful to her supervisor, Lindsey Rich, and Patricio Manzanares, vice president of operations, who collected and sent the medical supplies to the KATH hospital.<\/p>\n

Using the tried-and-true nursing teaching process\u2014see one, do one, teach one\u2014Soleta lectured to the nurses using the 12-hour curriculum she created for the course, then gave direct patient care in a clinic setting with the nurses, who first observed, then assisted and took over the treatment.<\/p>\n

She learned that, because of the shortage of \u201cmodern\u201d medicine, traditional treatments for wounds and other ailments in Ghana, including ginger and hibiscus. She explained the benefit of using MediHoney, sterile gel in wound healing and was startled to learn that the local version was unfiltered and unsterile but often applied to treat wounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe healthcare providers there do the best they can with the resources they have,\u201d Soleta observed.<\/p>\n

Back in the Lehigh Valley, in addition to her clinical activities in the hospital and outpatient clinics, Soleta often speaks on maintaining skin health and providing wound care to students at the School of Nursing and presents tutorials on these topics in area nursing homes.<\/p>\n

She hopes to make future volunteer trips for the IRF to other countries seeking her expertise, possibly Asia or other parts of Africa, where formal wound care and rehab programs are desperately needed, but either nascent or nonexistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to teach this vital knowledge in needy places throughout the world,\u201d said the wife and mother of two adult children.<\/p>\n

Chances are, her \u201cto do\u201d lists in future years will include making these good-will trips, buffered by taking relaxing vacations where she can recharge, including\u00a0 visits to her relatives in the Philippines. It\u2019s a balance she deftly strikes out of a love for teaching, travel and family, as she strives to help make the world a healthier place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites. With annual net revenue of $4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus. It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency, and patient satisfaction. St. Luke\u2019s is a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in\u00a02021 when it was identified as\u00a0THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was also identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Lorillie Soleta, DNP(center) teaching other nurses in Ghana, West Africa – Image provided by SLUHN If Lorillie Soleta, DNP, had created a \u201cBest of\u201d list for 2024, you\u2019d likely find … Continue reading Teaching Wound Care to Nurses in Ghana, West Africa<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/wound-care-ghana.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/139603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}