background
Support provided by nurses during the hospital stay is associated with sustained rates of breastfeeding. To improve breastfeeding rates, the New Jersey Department of Health amended Hospital Licensing Standards requiring that maternity staff demonstrate competency in breastfeeding assistance. The Partnership identified a need to support hospitals in meeting this requirement, developing and implementing breastfeeding education for maternity nurses in the northern region of the state.

objectives and methods
The goal of this education was to improve nurses’ knowledge and comfort level in providing guidance to postpartum patients in order to increase sustained breastfeeding. Curriculum was developed with content chosen based on a survey of maternity nurses and a focus group discussion. A lactation consultant with background in community breastfeeding support was engaged to write and present lectures. Skills sessions including hands-on components including latch/positioning, hand-expression, and pumping were designed and led by hospital lactation consultants to positively impact nurses’ comfort level with and ability to incorporate teaching these skills into professional practice.

results
This initiative became a staple in regional breastfeeding education, provided on a semi-annual basis in 2017 - 2019. One hundred and ninety three nurses were trained in 2017 and 2018 alone. The majority of attendees indicated a strong impact on professional practice in program evaluations (97%) and follow-up surveys (98%).

conclusions
Collaboration between the Partnership, speaker, and hospital lactation consultants was vital to success. Individual skills sessions have been replicated in area hospitals leading to reinforcement of skills such as hand expression and pumping techniques. Lactation consultants who developed and presented skills sessions have acted as role models and resources to other lactation consultants in the northern New Jersey, fostering professional development. Integration of the full model as an on-going educational resource should be explored. Future study of impact on regional rates of sustained breastfeeding is indicated.