{"id":4594,"date":"2022-02-03T16:43:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T16:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecfmg.org\/news\/?p=4594"},"modified":"2025-01-09T16:28:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T16:28:45","slug":"ecfmgfaimer-storytellers-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intealth.org\/storytellers\/2022\/02\/03\/ecfmgfaimer-storytellers-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Impactful FAIMER Fellowship Opens Doors for Cameroonian Educator"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dr. Aminkeng Leke frequently heard the same issue from final-year nursing students at Biaka University Institute of Buea in Cameroon when they returned to school following their required community internships: the need for diabetes screening in rural communities in Cameroon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Aminkeng<\/div>\n
Name:<\/strong> Aminkeng Leke, PhD
\nTitle:<\/strong> Research Associate
\nInstitution:<\/strong> Ulster University, United Kingdom
\nFAIMER Fellow:<\/strong> International FAIMER Institute 2011<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When Dr. Leke was accepted as a Fellow in the International FAIMER Institute in 2011, he knew that issue would be the focus of his education innovation project, a requirement of the fellowship. What he didn\u2019t realize at the time was how much his project, and the International FAIMER Institute, would transform his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call it a turning point in my career,\u201d said Dr. Leke, who described himself as a low-level staff member with a master\u2019s degree when he began the fellowship. \u201cSince the FAIMER Institute, my career trajectory has been remarkable. I\u2019ve had no other experience that would match what I had during the FAIMER fellowship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Leke developed his education innovation project, titled the \u201cNurse Led Rural Diabetes Project,\u201d with his FAIMER project advisor, Cheryl Portwood, an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions in Philadelphia, United States. The project involved training those final-year nursing students at Biaka University to conduct diabetes screenings in the rural health centers they were serving during their community internships.<\/p>\n

The initial phase of the project, which centered on two rural communities, began during Dr. Leke\u2019s two-year fellowship and continued with the support of his university. Within the first five years of the program, 75 student nurses were trained to screen for diabetes, 1,800 people were screened, and 65 cases of diabetes were identified and placed on a follow-up program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I presented my work during the FAIMER (Global Health Matters Forum), the feedback I got was remarkable,\u201d Dr. Leke said. \u201cIt got me empowered \u2026 and people gave me encouragement to do more. One thing that has stood out in my head is that they defined it as a textbook example of how health professions education can directly lead to a change in the community. So, those positive remarks have kept me going.\u201d The success of the project led to the publication of \u201cDiabetes Management: Student Nurses Contribute Using Point-of-Care Testing\u201d<\/a> <\/i> with Portwood and Dr. Michel Maboh in the journal Medical Education in 2013. Dr. Leke also entered his project in The Network: Towards University for Health Projects That Work competition and won the international award in 2015. The project is now funded by a grant from the World Diabetes Foundation, which has helped the program expand to other rural populations in Cameroon with potential for nationwide adoption. A short documentary film<\/a> <\/i> on the project was released in May 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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