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Perceptions of emergency medicine and acute care among a cohort of non-emergency medicine health providers in Myanmar


 Background

Currently, Myanmar does not have a nationalized emergency care or emergency medical services (EMS) system. The provision of emergency medicine (EM) education to physicians without such training is essential to address this unmet need for high quality emergency care. We queried a group of healthcare providers in Myanmar about their experience, understanding and perceptions regarding the current and future needs for EM training in their country.

Methods

A 34-question survey was administered to a convenience sample of healthcare workers from two primary metropolitan areas in Myanmar to assess exposure to and understanding of emergency and pre-hospital care in the country.

Results

236 of 290 (81% response rate) individuals attending one of two full-day symposia on emergency medicine completed the survey. The majority of respondents were female (n=138, 59%), physicians (n=171, 74%), and working in private practice (n=148, 64%). A majority of respondents (n=133, 57%) spent some to all of their clinical time providing acute and emergency care however 83.5% (n=192) of all surveyed reported little or no past training in emergency care; and those who have received prior emergency medicine training were more likely to care for emergencies (>2 weeks training; p=.052). 81% (n= 184) thought the development of emergency and acute care services should be a public health priority.

Conclusions

Although this subset of surveyed health practitioners commonly provides acute care, providers in Myanmar may not have adequate training in emergency medicine. Continued efforts to train Myanmar’s existing healthcare workforce in emergency and acute care should be emphasized.