Teaching of essential maternal and newborn interventions: how skilled are the trainers from health service provider training institutions in Port Harcourt, Rivers State?

Abstract

Background: Maternal and neonatal indices in Nigeria and other developing countries have remained poor, with poor access to health care and most deaths occurring at home. This necessitated the development of several low-cost, evidence-based essential interventions such as the Home Based Care for Mothers and Newborns (HBCMN) package by United Nations Children's Fund, of which 90% coverage could prevent up to 90% of these deaths. Therefore, achieving a meaningful reduction of maternal and perinatal mortality would require capacity building of health workers and their trainers.
Aim: To present the impact of the short course on HBCMN on the skills of health worker's trainers.
Methods: Teachers from five health institutions attended the course.  Pre- and post-tests were administered to assess the knowledge they acquired from the training. Results were analysed using percentages and the level of significance was set at P<0.05. 
Results: Thirty-seven participants registered and took the pre-test, 26 (70.3%) completed the training. In the pre-test, 96% of participants could name at least 2 danger signs in a pregnant woman and 84.6% in the newborn. Few participants knew the importance and timing of early postnatal visits. Twenty-four (92.3%) knew about early initiation, frequency and duration of exclusive breastfeeding; but none knew the management of sore nipples. Four (15.3%) participants knew about the Kangaroo Mother Care. These deficiencies significantly improved during the post-test.
Conclusion: Trainers of health workers require regular updating of their knowledge to improve the quality of their training.

Keywords: Essential interventions, Maternal, Newborn, Skills, Trainers, HBCMN package