PERINATAL CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAM: ITS EVALUATION AS AN OUTREACH STRATEGY (Phase II), Susan B. Clarke, MN, RNC, The Children's Hospital, Denver, CO.

Purpose Often cost, travel requirements and clinical responsibilities interfere with one's ability to attend an educational program. To address these issues, the Education Services Department at The Children's Hospital (TCH), Denver, offered the Perinatal Continuing Education Program (PCEP), a 40-week community-based/self-study program developed by Kattwinkel, Cook, et al at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, to outreach hospitals in the Rocky Mountain-Western Great Plains region. After the initial program, hospitals could elect to participate in a continuation program three years later. The initial evaluation (Phase I) included PCEP sites from 1985-1993. The purpose of this Phase II evaluation, which included PCEP sites from 1994-2001, was to determine 1) cost effectiveness for regional center/community staff, 2) improvement in participant’s test scores pre-post program and 3) tertiary NICU referral patterns between hospitals who had participated in PCEP vs. those who had not.

Methods Information was collected from summary tracking sheets completed by the local PCEP coordinators (participants and credits obtained), comprehensive pre- post-test scores from participants, budget (administrative fee, books and travel costs) and NICU referral records at TCH, and the American Hospital Association Guide 2001-2002 edition (# deliveries). In addition, teaching/travel hours for regional center staff and time spent by local PCEP nursing coordinators at the coordinator’s workshop and to facilitate nursing skills during program implementation were calculated.

Results 11 hospitals (195 RNs, 52 MDs, 32 others) had completed the initial PCEP course and 29 hospitals completed continuation programs (628 RNs, 152 MDs, 133 others) during the current study period for a total of 1193 participants. The entire program remained community-based with the exception of a 2-3 day coordinator's workshop held at The Children's Hospital when 2-3 nurses/hospital attended to learn the clinical/administrative skills to facilitate PCEP locally. These PCEP coordinators then spent approximately 8 hours/week for 12-16 weeks off-staff facilitating the clinical nursing workshops and tracking the continuing education credit for all participants. Over eight years, teaching, travel and administrative time for the regional center staff totaled 5,856 hours (146 hrs/PCEP site) and for local PCEP coordinators totaled 13,377 hours (334 hrs/PCEP site). Program cost averaged $220.75/participant and included self-study materials, regional center travel and administrative fees and CE credit (up to 82.5 credit hours; $4.87/credit hour). Pre- and post-tests were taken by 875 participants (73.3%). Mean test scores improved overall and by group (PRE: RN 69.9 ± 12.3, MD 77.4 ± 9.3, other 63.4 ± 14.3; POST: RN 79.8 ± 9.8, MD 88.3 ± 8.6, other 74.7 ± 11.9; p <0.0001). Referrals to the tertiary NICU were maintained over time among hospitals who participated in PCEP and the continuation program. Referrals per 1000 births averaged 12.3 ± 8.8 from PCEP hospitals and 2.1 ± 4.2 from non-PCEP hospitals (p <0.001).

Conclusions PCEP is an effective outreach educational strategy that maximizes regional center staff and participating hospital staff time and cost effectiveness, improves test scores and encourages NICU referrals.

COMPARISON CHART BETWEEN 1994 AND 2003 FINDINGS