Recorded presentation

JoAna Stallworth, PhD, MPH¹, Sibylle Kristensen, MS², Alexandrina Mwale, RN³, Sten Vermund, MD, PhD⁴, and Moses Sinkala, MD, MPH³. (1) Medicine/Geographic Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue South BBRB 206, Birmingham, AL 35294-2170, 205-975-2996, Stallworth@uab.edu, (2) Fogarty International, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Bevill Buiding, 19th street, Birmingham, AL 35205, (3) District Health Office, Plot 5977 PO Box 34681, Lusaka, Zambia, Zambia, (4) Geographic Medicine/ Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue South BBRB 206, Birmingham, AL, AL 35294

Background: Maternal mortality due to childbearing related causes, accounts for nearly 600,000 annual deaths worldwide, with the vast majority of these deaths occurring in developing countries. Most of these conditions are preventable through high-quality community-based obstetric care. The International Training Programs provided a Life Saving Skills (LSS) Training to Zambian nurse midwives. An evaluation was conducted of the LSS program in Lusaka, Zambia. Methods: A pre and post test evaluation design was implemented for the LSS training program. A control group was utilized to compare effect of intervention on the level of knowledge and skills of nurse midwives. Results: A total of 289 nurse midwives completed the baseline evaluation; follow-up tests included 289 at post test 1 and 244 at post test 2. Overall scores showed an increase in the LSS from baseline to post tests. An increase in life saving skills for nurse midwives of over 48% was found from baseline to post test 1 with results yielding scores at baseline of 19.79 (standard deviation (SD) = 4.60) to 29.35 (SD 4.61) at time 1. At the second post test, scores maintained higher results than baseline and an overall slight increase from post test 1 with a mean score of 30.84 (SD 6.85). Conclusions: Results from the pre and post test evaluation indicate a positive impact of the nurse midwife training program on the improvement of Life Savings Skills for nurse midwives in Zambia. Our findings clearly indicate the importance of the Life Saving Skills Training program in increasing critical skills and knowledge for the decrease of high maternal and infant mortality in Zambia.

Learning Objectives:

• To learn of the effect of LSS training for nurse midwives on knowledge and skill retention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation