Yousif Elnour

I left Sudan in late 2021 and came to Ireland. I’m a community and public health physician who has worked for several institutions including the Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, and other civil society organisations. Sudan is being torn apart by war and political instability, leaving at least 20,000 dead and many more at risk. The conflict has destroyed the majority of Sudan’s healthcare institutions, including hospitals, primary healthcare facilities, and specialised centres. There have been attacks on healthcare providers themselves.

We will need more clinical leadership and governance roles to make our health system function. I wanted to find a course that would help me to be a part of the solution to Sudan’s chronic health system problems. As a community and public health specialist, I know that knowledge is key Ireland stood out. The Sudanese Medical Specialisation Board (SMSB), where we get our training, has a partnership with the Health Service Executive, Ireland, allowing Sudanese doctors to join the International Medical Graduate Training Initiative where we can perform training across several specialties including anaesthesiology, general medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology, paediatrics, and emergency medicine. In this regard, I recommend adding the specialty of community medicine to the above list, as most of the senior roles in the Sudanese health system are run by community medicine and public health specialists, who are in real need of developing their experiences to design resilient health systems.

After some research, RCSI was the obvious choice. It leads to research and professional development. My course in RCSI Quality and Safety in Healthcare Management, has taught me a great deal about quality improvement and patient safety, including clinical governance, leadership & strategy, and accreditation and standards. Most importantly, how to apply these concepts in the real world. Quality matters because it means timely management of patients, as well as efficient, effective, and equitable care that patients can trust.

During my course, I’ve also had the opportunity to be the student representative for my course. Student engagement at RCSI is not just tokenistic; we are involved in the decision-making process. If we have concerns, we can raise them and they are listened to, but we’re also involved in the assessment and feedback processes. We’ve been supported in attending conferences, including one on improving healthcare through artificial intelligence, allowing us to hear from international speakers who are not just knowledgeable, but also have expertise and hands-on experience on how to run quality and safety in a constantly-changing healthcare environment.

For my project, I worked on a plan to improve maternal healthcare and reduce maternal death in Sudan. There are simple and effective methods we can use to reduce risk factors for pregnant women, which don’t require significant financial resources, and which can be easily applied even in an unstable political context.

I’m still eager to gain more knowledge and skills. I’m here in Ireland, a country with a well-structured healthcare system and many resources, and I want to gain experience and expertise that I can bring home with me.

As a healthcare professional, I must help my country to build a resilient health system, where my parents, my family, and friends are being treated. I owe Sudan so much.