The impact of an intensive educational program regarding preeclampsia on health professional knowledge

Abstract

Preeclampsia is a multi-system disorder unique to human pregnancy with multi-system involvement. Worldwide, it causes >500,000 fetal and neonatal deaths and >70,000 maternal deaths every year. Limited knowledge of health professionals in direct connection with complications of pregnancy, and inability to keep up with medical knowledge, has potentially severe effects on the quality of care and increases maternal and perinatal mortality. The aim has been to identify the impact of an intensive educational program regarding preeclampsia on health professionals knowledge at Clinical Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology Polizu in Bucharest, Romania. The study design was quasi-experimental. A total of 89 health professionals, including 12 resident physicians, 12 midwives and 65 nurses at Clinical Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology Polizu in Bucharest in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology participated in the study. The study was designed in three phases: Assessment phase, Implementation phase and Evaluation phase. The intensive educational program regarding preeclampsia has a highly significant positive influence on the knowledge of health professionals. There was a clear transfer of knowledge among the participants. The following resulted across all 31 examined knowledge areas: Resident physicians: Category Score /Criteria Pre-Test (No./%): Inadequate 1 (8.3%), Moderate 9 (75%), Adequate 2 (16.7%), Midwives: Category Score /Criteria Pre-Test (No./%): Inadequate 8 (66.7%), Moderate 4 (33.3%), Adequate 0 (0%), Nurses: Category Score /Criteria Pre- Test (No./%): Inadequate 60 (92.3%), Moderate 5 (7.7%), Adequate 0 (0%). After Trainingsprogramm, the amount of knowledge in the field preeclampsia increased impressively: Resident physicians: Category Score /Criteria Post-Test (No./%): Inadequate 0 (0%), Moderate 0 (0%), Adequate 12 (100%), Midwives: Category Score /Criteria Post-Test (No./%): Inadequate 0 (0%), Moderate 3 (25%), Adequate 9 (75%) with a (p<0.002), Nurses: Category Score /Criteria Post-Test (No./%): Inadequate 0 (0%), Moderate 10 (15.4%), Adequate 55 (84.6%) with a (p<0.001). Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the intensive educational program regarding preeclampsia led up updating of the knowledge and improved qualification of the health professionals. This is expected to improve the quality of care for patients and reduce maternal and perinatal preeclampsia-related mortality in Romania.