196359 Learning for performance: Bolstering education for Armenian nurses

Wednesday, November 11, 2009: 12:30 PM

Sara Lewis, MA , Maternal Child Health, IntraHealth International, Chapel Hill, NC
Gohar Panajyan, MD, MPH , USAID Project Nova, IntraHealth International/Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
Karen Adamyan , USAID Project Nova, IntraHealth International/Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
Zara Mkrtchyan, MPH , USAID Project Nova, IntraHealth International/Project NOVA, Yerevan, Armenia
  
Background: In Armenia, Project NOVA used the Learning for Performance (LFP) approach to design in-service training of rural community nurses in safe motherhood clinical skills (SMCS). LFP, a systematic instructional design process, connects learning to specific job responsibilities/competencies. After the training led to over 20% increases in postpartum and antenatal care composite performance scores measured through simulated case observations, NOVA developed a pilot program integrating LFP and SMCS training materials into nurses' and midwives' pre-service training curriculum, hypothesizing that knowledge and skills of students using the new curriculum would be higher than those using previous curriculum/methodology, which covered theory but not practice.

Methods: Gyumri Basic Medical College nursing and midwifery students (153) participated in the pilot over one academic year. NOVA monitored faculty adherence to syllabus content and teaching methodology. Before the pilot, NOVA evaluated knowledge and skills of a group of third- and fourth-year students taught with the previous curriculum for comparison with endline data. The evaluation covered antenatal and postpartum care, and intrapartum emergencies using standard knowledge evaluation written tests and checklists for clinical skills assessments using mannequins.

Results: Previous students (n=86) scored 36% and 0%, respectively, on knowledge and skills. Post-pilot, third- and fourth-year students (n=85) scored 54% and 59% on knowledge and skills. While nurses' mean knowledge increase was higher than the midwives' increase, the mean increase of clinical skills performance was almost equal for nurses and midwives.

Conclusions: The pilot shows LFP can be a valuable resource for upgrading education in countries with similar needs.

Learning Objectives:
Describe findings from a pilot program that integrated the Learning for Performance (LFP) approach in pre-service training for Armenian nurses and midwives. Discuss at least two potential benefits of applying LFP in other contexts and countries.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I had been involved in this particular pilot initiative starting from its startup and preparatory phases through implementation and final report preparation. I had adapted one of the content modules of the pre-service SMCS curriculum with 1 faculty member of Gyumri Medical College on the: Role of Community in Raising the General Awareness on Mother/Child Health Care and had reviewed the technical content of all the rest of 6 modules of the adapted pre-service Safe Motherhood Clinical Skills( SMCS) curriculum. I also am one of the 2 report writers of the final report on the main findings of the Gyumri SMCS pre-service pilot initiative.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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