This week, Aebhric O’Kelly welcomes Marcus Wootton, a British emergency nurse, humanitarian healthcare practitioner and Associate Director of the International Academy at the Royal College of Nursing.
Marcus shares his experiences working with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in South Sudan, supporting healthcare development across Africa and helping to rebuild nursing education in conflict-affected Myanmar.
The conversation explores the evolution of the Diploma in Global Health and Tropical Nursing at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, highlighting its relevance to nurses and paramedics working in remote, austere and resource-limited environments.
A central theme is the importance of sustainable humanitarian healthcare. Marcus challenges traditional approaches to international medical assistance, discussing the unintended consequences of inappropriate equipment donations, imported clinical protocols and short-term educational interventions that fail to recognise local expertise and existing healthcare systems.
Marcus describes an extraordinary initiative to rebuild nursing education in Myanmar following the military coup. Working alongside local partners and an international network of nursing educators, the programme developed 3,600 hours of undergraduate nursing education, combining recorded lectures with locally facilitated teaching and clinical placements. At the time of recording, more than 160 nurses were progressing through the programme, with 42 graduates from its first undergraduate and bridging cohorts.
The discussion concludes with practical advice for healthcare professionals entering humanitarian and austere medicine: listen, recognise local expertise, develop sustainable partnerships and approach unfamiliar healthcare environments with humility.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
00:15 – Introducing Marcus Wootton
00:37 – The Royal College of Nursing and global health education
01:20 – The evolution of the Diploma in Global Health and Tropical Nursing
03:05 – Why paramedics should study tropical medicine and global health
05:01 – Shared learning and international clinical expertise
06:21 – Online education and practical laboratory training
07:10 – From emergency nursing to humanitarian medicine
07:34 – Vietnam, Agent Orange and the motivation to become a nurse
09:44 – Working with Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan
10:49 – Healthcare development across Africa
12:27 – Common challenges facing global healthcare systems
13:37 – Comparing international healthcare and EMS systems
14:31 – Supporting healthcare education in conflict zones
16:10 – Developing sustainable medical training in Ghana
17:42 – Colonial attitudes and unintended consequences in humanitarian medicine
20:30 – Adapting trauma education to resource-limited environments
21:29 – Recognising clinical deterioration versus advanced resuscitation
22:56 – Healthcare priorities and preventative medicine
23:21 – The dangers of short-term humanitarian interventions
24:53 – Healthcare development in Myanmar before the military coup
27:13 – Community resilience and healthcare in Myanmar
27:57 – Building a parallel healthcare system during conflict
29:00 – Nursing, global health and healthcare inequalities
30:51 – Pints of Knowledge: communicating global health to the public
32:34 – Rebuilding undergraduate nursing education in Myanmar
34:23 – Graduating the first cohort of nurses
34:44 – Grassroots healthcare education and local capacity building
35:19 – Raising awareness of Myanmar's humanitarian crisis
35:40 – Advice for clinicians entering austere medicine
37:11 – Closing remarks
