In a vital initiative demonstrating its commitment to community engagement and strengthening national health systems, the Department of Emergency Medical Sciences (DEMS) successfully delivered critical training to frontline paramedics in the Eastern Cape.

The project, titled "Breathing Life into Care: Eastern Cape EMS Airway & Ventilation Project," addressed an urgent need to upskill emergency medical personnel.

The project was initiated in response to the unique challenges faced by the Eastern Cape, a province with vast rural areas where critically ill patients often require long-distance transport to tertiary hospitals. These extended transfers can lead to preventable morbidity and mortality if advanced airway and mechanical ventilation are not managed expertly. The collaboration was spearheaded by Abongile Xeketwana, the project lead from the Eastern Cape Department of Health.

A dedicated CPUT team travelled to Gqeberha to conduct the two-day workshop. The team was led by facilitators Elroy Cameron, Athenkosi Sobada, and Kwanda Gogotyi, with John Meyer providing crucial coordination and administrative support.

The workshop was attended by 24 Paramedics and Emergency Care Practitioners, the majority of whom work in the public sector in rural, low-resource environments. For two-thirds of the attendees, this was their first formal training in this specialised area.

The educational impact of the simulation-based workshop was profound and measurable. A pre- and post-course knowledge assessment demonstrated a remarkable improvement.

The training successfully closed significant knowledge gaps previously identified in complex areas like paediatric ventilation and lung-protective strategies. The analysis showed the workshop was especially effective for early-career professionals while also serving as a valuable refresher for highly experienced clinicians.

This project aligns with national and global development goals, including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for Good Health (SDG 3), Quality Education (SDG 4), and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), as well as South Africa’s National Development Plan goal of ensuring a long and healthy life for all citizens.

Through this collaborative effort, CPUT DEMS has not only enhanced the clinical skills of Eastern Cape paramedics but has also reinforced its role as an engaged university dedicated to using its expertise to build a capable state and address the real-world health challenges facing South Africa’s communities.

Written by CPUT News
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The Emergency Medical Sciences (EMS) Department is forging ahead with establishing a dedicated space for its graduate students.

Thanks to a generous R200 000 donation from the Professional Provident Society (PPS), the Centre for EMS Graduate Studies will soon begin taking shape.

EMS Head of Department, Christopher Lloyd, says the department has recently moved into a modern new building, custom-built for the specialised needs of students, graduates and lecturers. One of the rooms in the building has been earmarked as a Centre for EMS Graduate Studies. 

“It is intended to be a venue where graduate students gather for research purposes, think-tanks and brainstorming sessions, focus group discussions, tutorials, internet research and socialising. We see this space as a catalyst for the promotion of intellectualism and thought-leaders in our profession.”

Lloyd says the department is widely regarded as the best in South Africa, if not the continent. Students are trained in both advanced life support and medical as well as rescue skills. They are thus in high demand internationally, as evidenced by the recent mission to earthquake-struck Nepal.

Sandi Goodwin and Riana ‘O Neil of PPS say they are proud to be associated with the department.

“While PPS offers insurance, investment and healthcare solutions exclusively for graduate professionals, the financial education of students is a large part of our offering. It makes us happy to guide students in financial planning.”

Students in their fourth academic year of study, studying towards one of the PPS eligible professions, are also entitled to membership.

Written by Janyce Weintrob

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Emergency Medical Services training at CPUT has received a major boost with the opening of a new immersive simulation centre, which can emulate real emergency scenarios to train students to treat patients in life-threatening emergencies.

The state-of-the art immersive clinical simulation centre can replicate emergency scenarios, such as road accidents, and will be used for learning as well as assessment purposes.

EMS lecturer John Meyer says that before students can do their work integrated learning the university has to ensure that they are competent to perform procedures on real people.

“With the simulation based education we provide a hands-on experience, where real life situations are simulated for students to develop their skills. They can practice over and over again without causing any harm.”

A range of different scenarios can be pre-set for students, including for the delivery of a baby.

In this case the EMS Department has a birthing mannequin which can automatically deliver a baby, including having contractions and making sounds.

“At the back-end, the simulation technician will set up the mannequin to a pre-set scenario and the lecturer can watch the student treat the “patient” from the control room and from there also speak to the student. The technology allows the lecturer’s voice to be transmitted via the mannequin as the voice of the patient.

“We also have an observation room to which we can live stream to the rest of the students and where a facilitator can facilitate discussion. Everything is recorded on the server and this allows the students to review the video footage later.”

Meyer said an important part of the training was the debriefing process.

“Students reflect afterwards on how they performed during the scenario and will be given feedback on what went well or what went wrong and how they could better achieve the outcomes and objectives of the scenario. Students are enjoying the immersive training experience and we’ll be able to send out students who are safe and competent.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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Staff members and students from the Department of Emergency Medical Sciences (EMS) recently joined the Gift of the Givers Foundation on a one-day medical intervention in the Central Karoo town of Touws River.

Specialists, other medical personnel as well as trainees joined the humanitarian organisation to provide much-needed medical services to residents of the town as well as from surrounding areas.

The staff members from the EMS Department who participated were: John Meyer (project lead), Casey Van Der Walt, Elroy Cameron, Daglin Thomas and Candice De Waal. They were joined by students Khuthazwa Sontangana, Lindibuhle Njwayi, Sinalo Faca, Lazarus Mohlahlo and Nelisa Qongwane

“Our main function was triaging of 1500 patients,” said Meyer.

The Department has worked with the Gift of the Givers Foundation for many years and has been on local and international missions with the organisation.

Khuthazwa said she gained valuable experience from the intervention.

“It was my first time assisting so any people and I learnt so much. It was a good experience – you get to help the people without expecting anything in return. What Gift of the Givers are doing really inspires me.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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The teaching excellence of a lecturer who strives to get more matric learners from disadvantaged backgrounds into university was acknowledged during a recent awards ceremony.

The Emergency Medical Sciences (EMS) Department’s Dr Kareemah Gamieldien recently won the Faculty Award during the Health and Wellness Sciences Faculty’s annual Teaching Excellence Awards.

Gamieldien, with the help of her department, initiated a community project at her alma mater, Wynberg High School, in a bid to boost matric Life Sciences results through a revision programme. 

“This is a project that is very dear to my heart. The reality is that students who come from socio-economic disadvantaged backgrounds automatically are disadvantaged in the education system. I asked myself one day ‘What can EMS Basic Sciences do to help these matriculants qualify to even apply for medical or science programmes’,” said Gamaldien.

She approached the school and offered the support of EMS Basic Sciences to their Life sciences matric students in preparation for their final exams. Ten second-year physiology students came along as tutors.

“After three sessions the results were unexpectedly exceptional,” said Gamieldien who added that they were now waiting for the matric pupils’ final results to assess the impact of the project.

She acknowledged the Marketing and Communication Department and the Centre for Community Engagement and Work Integrated Learning for their support.

Two Departmental Awards were also announced and both winners are from the Department of Medical Imaging and Therapeutic Sciences. They are Diagnostic Ultrasound lecturer Merlisa Kemp and clinical instructor Heidi Thomas.

“What I tell students is that sometimes your circumstances mould you but you shouldn’t let your circumstances define who you are,” said Kemp.

Thomas said the focus of her teaching was on active participation where everyone is involved in the learning process, peer engagement and literature.

Prof Penelope Engel-Hills, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences, said it has been a great year for the faculty: “I thank each and every one of you because our students come out of here ready to go into healthcare practice because they have such competent teachers and practitioners.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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Growing up Mustafa Zalgaonker would often hear his mother say: “the giving hand is better than the receiving hand.”

The message resonated with the Emergency Medical Sciences lecturer who has dedicated much of his time assisting those in need, not only at home but in disaster-struck areas in different parts of the world.

Earlier this year when a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Indonesia, Zalgaonker was part of a team from the Gift of the Givers organisation who assisted with humanitarian aid and care.
He has worked with Gift of the Givers on several occasions since 2015 when Nepal was hit by an earthquake.

“It has been an eye-opener to see how people survive around the world and how we take things for granted. We have challenges in our health care system but it was humbling to see how elsewhere in the world people get by with a lot less, no running water and poor infrastructure.”

The EMS Department has a close relationship with the organisation and also assisted them during the Knysna fires.

“As academics, we teach rescue, disaster management and rescue incident management. So having the opportunity to go to a real-life disaster setting is an invaluable learning experience. We can convey the risk and the experience to our students.”

Despite his busy schedule, Zalgaonker will be among the hundreds of graduates at today’s graduation ceremony for the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences.

He has earned his Master’s degree and this thesis is titled Intravenous fluid resuscitation: surveillance of penetrating injury in the pre-hospital environment.

“You learn so much about yourself while completing such a degree, about your own resilience, how to manage your time and how to juggle what life throws in your path. So, if you’re wondering how to juggle it all, you will find a way.”

Giving back defines Zalgaonker’s life and he is involved in a range of charities from animal welfare to work with the disabled.

“There is a sense of happiness you get from helping people. If you help people without them knowing you get a sense of enlightenment.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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Benjamin de Waal has always had a passion for serving the community and this passion shines through in his role as CPUT’s Vaccination Manager.

At the age of 14, he started volunteering at his local Disaster Management and National Sea Rescue Institute “and from that point, it was really the only thing I wanted to do”.

He followed his dream and completed his National Diploma in Emergency Care at CPUT in 2005, followed by his BTech in Emergency Care in 2008. He also holds a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from Stellenbosch University and completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education at CPUT in 2015.

De Waal said that when the Sisonke study started, he assisted with the coordination of Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences staff and students with the Department of Health to gain access to the vaccination for health care workers.

“From there I have been involved in the CPUT vaccination programme and when the opportunity emerged to create our own vaccination centre, I was very interested in making a contribution. As I have been managing academic programmes, had a background in epidemiology and epidemiological research, disaster management and as an emergency care practitioner with experience in managing critically ill patients with infectious diseases, I believed I could make a meaningful contribution to the CPUT community by taking up this challenge,” said the senior lecturer and head of the Bachelor of Emergency Medical Care Programme.

“Although I am primarily in Emergency Medical Sciences (EMS), vaccination has for many decades been a cornerstone of all healthcare systems and of course of infectious disease epidemiology. As such all healthcare workers are well equipped to provide vaccinations to patients and partaking in driving vaccination programmes.” 

He paid tribute to his colleagues from the Department of Nursing, EMS, the HIV Unit and Campus Health, who have been instrumental in making the centre a reality and a success.

“This had truly been a CPUT community effort.”

De Waal said the vaccination programme roll-out has been very fast-paced with things evolving quickly and at short notice.

“We have managed to vaccinate over 13000 people at our centre, with many of them being elderly or people at high risk of severe Covid-19. Knowing that we may have directly assisted in protecting these people from suffering or death as a result of Covid-19 is very rewarding. As our centre is located in an area with historically low healthcare coverage, we have managed to play a pivotal role in our local geographical area in providing access to vaccination. 

He encourages the CPUT community to get vaccinated.

“I think the most important message is to say that vaccination really does work. It significantly reduces transmission, it significantly reduces your risk of contracting Covid-19 even, with the new variants, and it very significantly reduces your risk of severe disease or death. It is our best defence against Covid-19, and it is safe, much safer than exposing yourself to getting Covid-19. There is a lot of misinformation out there about the vaccine so verify the authenticity of what you are reading or hearing by going to trusted sources. If you are unsure, rather ask a healthcare provider such as those working at the vaccination centre.”

De Waal, a husband and father of two, says family is very important to him.

“We love camping and spending time outdoors in the mountains. I am also an avid mountain biker and trail runner. “ 

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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