Preparing Kenya’s health system for extreme weather

In both high- and low-income countries, health systems need to be ready for extreme weather. While sustainability efforts are underway, health systems must cope with events like floods and droughts, which increase healthcare demand and disrupt services. The NEWRISK project in Kenya addresses these challenges, emphasizing resilience and insurance strategies to maintain healthcare access during crises, amid climate change's broad impacts on health systems.

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Under pressure, the challenges of neonatal nursing

Caring for sick newborns in a poorly resourced hospital is a very challenging job. Yet this is not the only challenge many nurses face as they juggle supporting families and lives in a busy city. Some nurses have developed ways to cope in these difficult circumstances but for many the relentless pressure may cause them harm while upholding the ideals of nursing may seem impossible. Interview recorded in 2018

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Neonatal nursing in Kenya

Nurses in Kenyan hospitals are very busy, with high nurse to patients ratios. They face an extremely stressful enviroment, exacerbated by bad reports in the press. Babies are particularly vulnerable during their first two days of life. A better understanding of the coping mechanisms put in place by those nurses could help us ensure a better survival rate for these babies. Interview recorded in 2016

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Jacob McKnight is a researcher with an interest in health systems and management reform. After working for Medecins Sans Frontieres, he completed a PhD at Said Business School focused on hospital management in Ethiopia. He used organisational and marketing theory to provide new perspectives on global health problems.

As part of the VITAL project, Jacob leads work on the development and design of wearable technologies for use in ICUs in Vietnam. He is also co-investigator on the CINAMR project, which aims to test the effectiveness and appropriateness of a hub-and-spoke microbiology system in Kenya. He is also interested in critical care in lower-income settings and recently led qualitative work on the POETIC project that sought to understand the readiness of hospitals to deliver Essential Emergency and Critical Care.  

Most recently, Professor McKnight has focused on readying health facilities for extreme weather and has a number of projects in development on this topic.