Episode Details
Back to Episodes#438 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Neonatology in Burundi: QI at the Edge of the World (ft. Dr. Jennifer Harling)
Description
Dr. Jennifer Harling, pediatrician and neonatologist who spent six years practicing in Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world, shares what it took to introduce breast milk fortification, bubble CPAP, and revised sepsis protocols in a setting with nurse-to-patient ratios as high as one to forty and near-zero access to medical supplies. She reflects on the extraordinary obstacles of implementing quality improvement in resource-limited environments — from procurement failures to language barriers to training nurses with limited formal education — and explains why sustainability ultimately came down to the same thing it does everywhere: culture. She also turns the lens around and offers what may be the most universally applicable lesson she brought back from Burundi: slow down, and ask the parent what their number one concern is today.
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