Strength in the System: Caregiver Wellbeing in African PICUs

In this episode of the World PICU Awareness Week 2026 podcast series, we explore caregiver wellbeing through the perspective of PICU teams across Africa. Moderated by Dr. Charlyne Kilba, this discussion brings together multidisciplinary voices from across the continent, highlighting both the shared challenges and the strength of teams working in resource-limited, high-demand environments. The conversation provides an honest reflection on the realities of pediatric critical care in Africa – including staff shortages, high patient volumes, ethical dilemmas, and limited access to essential resources – and how these factors impact the wellbeing of healthcare professionals. At the same time, the episode showcases powerful and practical approaches to support caregivers, including team-based support systems, debriefing practices, spirituality, and community-driven initiatives. A strong emphasis is placed on resilience – not only at the individual level, but as a collective and system-supported effort. HOST Marie-Charlyne Kilba Paediatric Intensivist, Head of Department Child Health, Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Ghana GUEST Ireen Primrose Machira Nursing Officer PICU in the Mercy James Centre, Malawi Rohini Kalagouda Patil Lead Paediatric Intesivist Nairobi Hospital, Kenya Susan Zakariah Paediatric emergency and critical care specialist, Head of the PICU Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana Brenda Morrow Physiotherapist University of Cape Town, South Africa DATE Initial publication date: May 6, 2026 TRANSCRIPTS English - Spanish - French - Portuguese - Italian - German - Arabic - Please visit: OPENPediatrics™ is an interactive digital learning platform for healthcare clinicians sponsored by Boston Children's Hospital and in collaboration with the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies. It is designed to promote the exchange of knowledge between healthcare providers around the world caring for critically ill children in all resource settings. The content includes internationally recognized experts teaching the full range of topics on the care of critically ill children. All content is peer-reviewed and open-access, thus at no expense to the user. For further information on how to enroll, please email: openpediatrics@childrens.harvard.edu Please note: OPENPediatrics does not support or control any related videos in the sidebar; these are placed by YouTube. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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Strength in the System: Caregiver Wellbeing in African PICUs is an episode from OPENPediatrics by OPENPediatrics.

This episode is 00:28:32 long.

This episode was published on May 5, 2026.

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