Lactation Management Educational Program, Research Paper Example

Introductory Background

An educational program dedicated to enhance knowledge and developmental information shall be implemented among Perinatal Unit nurses to enhance their knowledge and skills for lactation management as compared to pre-test knowledge assist with increasing exclusive breastfeeding rates of postpartum mothers during their stay in hospital. How would this program affect the overall performance of nurses in their own fields of responsibility thus making it easier for them to embrace excellence as part of their regular working culture?

Population of Interest

The perinatal unit nurses are crucial for ensuring an effective mother-child relationship. They achieve this by providing essential information on the best practices to enhance infant survival and growth within the first month of live birth. Perinatal nurses have noticed an increase in the number of infant health complications that result from little to no exclusive breastfeeding within the first year of child birth. Nurses have found it considerably difficult to increase the rates of exclusive breastfeeding for postpartum mothers during their stay in hospital. They have noted this through observation of the duration of uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact between mother and child after birth.

Most of the nurses are adequately trained and qualified to handle postpartum issues and vary in their age, level of experience and position held. Most of the nurses are of Level I and Level II perinatal care and vary in their age, while some of the nurses are fairly-to-well experienced in perinatal care, a considerable number have less than 5 years of experience.

Implementation

I plan to implement a change process on the perinatal unit to aid in breastfeeding support.  The process will include implementing the ten steps of breastfeeding success by embarking on the Baby Friendly Initiative Journey.  Educating the nursing staff regarding current lactation management is a key element.  My project goal is to increase knowledge for the nurses as well as increase exclusive breastfeeding rates.

Comparison of Interest

The implementation of the baby friendly Initiative would effectively increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding. There exists the alternative of using pre-test knowledge to achieve the desired goal. Relying on pre-test knowledge would provide nurses the opportunity to apply their acquired knowledge to increase breastfeeding rates in the perinatal unit. However, there exist one major flaw with this design. Pre-test knowledge may vary from one nurse to another. This is largely related to the level of education and experience at work.Pre-test knowledge disregards the existence of a number of variables that would make the implementation of this knowledge difficult. There exist a number of variables that are unique to every child-birth case.

Outcome of Interest

The institutional changes that are embodied in the application of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is expected to effectively increase the initiation of breastfeed and the duration rates. The training program is expected to fully implement all ten steps defined in BFHI to increase and augment optimal maternity care practices. This is expected to record an increase in exclusive breastfeeding and reduce the rates of supplemental feeds for newborns.

The training program is also expected to reduce the rate at which new mother are introduced to infant formula. It is expected that there will be an increase on the number of primiparous mothers (first-time-mothers) who engage in exclusive breastfeeding during their stay in hospital and in the first-few months after child birth.

Design

The study will entail four distinct phases. Each phase is designed to achieve a specific goal.

• Discovery: this step is designed to help collect information on the current rates of breastfeeding, especially exclusive breastfeeding within the perinatal unit.

Development: this phase entails the development of a plan to realize the ten steps to successful breastfeeding embodied in BFHI. This will also entail the identification of the level and type of technical assistance that will be required to realize the application of the ten steps to successful breastfeeding.

• Dissemination: this entails the implementation of the tens steps to successful breastfeed. During this phase, extensive data will be collected and the results will be matched against the Baby-Friendly USA Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria. During this stage, adequate quality improvement measures and techniques will be applied as data is collected and compared against the guidelines envisioned in BFHI.
• Designation: this phase entails the continuation of the quality improvement program. As soon as implementation of all the set guidelines and evaluation criteria is complete, the assessment process is initiated. A series of assessments are completed using a number of tools, including and not limited to document reviews, interviews and observation. A successful implementation of the BFHI guidelines would be defined by the effective and full implementation of the international code of breast milk marketing as well as the ten steps to successful breastfeeding.

Feasibility

The study defines by the four distinct phases which makes the whole educational program feasible enough in relation to the required 16-week timeframe for intervention. The study can be effectively implemented within 10 to 12 weeks of initiation. This is well within the provided time limit for intervention. The procedures defined within the study would consume a considerable amount of time during the first two stages.

Identification and Application

The system defined above is designed to target perinatal unit nurses to implement the desired change, increase in their knowledge and skills of lactation management. Through all phases, the design would effectively achieve the desired and/or expected outcomes as defined by the BFHI standards. Practical application of these standards of operation consistently improves the manner by which nurses are able to strongly apply good practice especially in helping mothers develop a better culture that allows them to breastfeed their newborn infants.

Conclusion

Following through the standards of BFHI, the program to be implemented in relation to the educational needs of the perinatal nurses shall provide distinct information that would best cater to the learning process that nurses themselves need to give attention to. Having a specific point of interest and a distinct course of role that the nurses need to take into account, the educational program introduced to the group of nurses assisted herein need to be specific enough to address the needs of the patients that they cater to in their own fields of expertise. Implementing such program aims to impose efficiency in relation to the points of operation that the nurses need to give specific attention to at work.

References

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Ferngren, GB (2009). Medicine & health care in early Christianity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 121.

Sachedina, Abdulaziz (2009). Islamic biomedical ethics: principles and application. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 93–94.

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