TITLE:
Evaluation of Midwives’ and Nurses’ Continuing Professional Development in Reducing Maternal and Neonatal Mortality in Embu County, Kenya
AUTHORS:
Lucy K. Gitonga, Njogu Samson Muriuki
KEYWORDS:
Evaluation; Continuing Professional Development; Maternal Mortality; Neonatal Mortality
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.4 No.6,
April
2,
2014
ABSTRACT: Continuing professional
development (CPD) is one of the principal means by which health professionals
(Nurses and midwives) maintain, improve, and broaden the knowledge and skills
required for optimal patient care and safety, to be more specific reduction of
maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. However, the lack of a widely
accepted instrument to assess the impact of CPD activities on clinical practice
thwarts researchers’ assessment of the effectiveness of CPD activities. The
objective of the study is to develop a theory and practice-based, valid,
reliable national instrument to assess the impact of accredited CPD activities
on reducing maternal and neonatal mortality in Kenya using an integrated model
for the study of healthcare professionals’ behavior through environmental
scanning of the factors that promote good performance. The researcher will
analyze the instruments identified in a systematic review of factors motivating
and demotivating nurses and midwives’ behaviours using criteria that reflect
the literature on measurement development of CPD leaders and providers’
priorities. The outcome of this phase will be an inventory of instruments using
a competence-based model. Working from this inventory, the most relevant items
for assessing the concepts listed will be selected. Then, the researcher will
verify whether these items are acceptable or need modification, what aspects
need revision, and whether important items are missing and should be added. The
outcome of this phase will be a new national instrument integrating the most
relevant tools to fit our integrated model of healthcare professionals’
behavior. Two data collections are planned: 1) pretesting of the new
instrument, to assess its reliability and validity and 2) a study using the
instrument before and after CPD activities with randomly selected groups, one
acting as control group to assess measurement effect. The researcher will
conduct individual interviews and focus groups with CPD providers and leaders
to identify anticipated barriers and enablers for implementing the new
instrument in CPD practice. Drawing on the results from the previous phases, we
will use consensus-building methods with the decision makers to develop a plan
to implement the new instrument.