If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. - Chinese proverb
This well-known proverb is at the heart of our mission. The Neonatal Newborn Survival Program teaches, trains, and mentors participants. Each of these components plays a vital role and is critical to the learning process.
In the teaching phase, we transfer knowledge and concepts and encourage discussion and evaluation of ideas. For adult learners, this interactive process lays the foundation for the later clinical application of skills--the why behind the how.
Teaching
We developed a five-part training program that can be delivered as one comprehensive program over a year or broken into component parts and used as needed and aimed at different levels of the healthcare worker continuum. The program is delivered by a NICU nurse educator team leader and supplemented with volunteer US NICU nurses.
- Phase 1 of training is the Professional Practice of Advanced Neonatal Care (PPANC), a comprehensive education program that combines didactic and experiential components to enhance clinical knowledge and skill sets of nurses, clinical officers, and health workers who regularly care for newborns. We delivered this course in Haiti, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Swaziland. Training consists of approximately 80-120 hours of classroom and clinical instruction for learners.
- Phase 2 is the refresher course offered to participants within 6-12 months of completion of Phase 1. Learners that show desire and aptitude to teach are given a train-the-trainer course in Helping Babies Breathe®.
- Phase 3 is a workshop designed for the new teachers to get practice in how to give instruction by having them organize, deliver, and evaluate a new cohort of HBB students who have not had exposure to HBB but are an established workforce in neonatal care.
- In Phase 4 some salary support is provided for an in-country coordinator who teaches as well as administers a Helping Babies Breathe® training program throughout the district. The goal is to train all workers involved with neonatal care to ensure sustainability. .
- Phase 5 is a bilateral cross-cultural exchange training program. In-country personnel will come to OSU to for focused training in instructional and teaching expertise, evaluation and assessment skills, administrative skills for running a program, advocacy for Public Policy change, and clinical bedside mentoring
Training
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” - Benjamin Franklin
Experiential learning or the training component of the Professional Practice of Advanced Neonatal Care (PPANC) is the hands-on application of the knowledge gained. Training in the clinical setting is the “doing” part of the program. Participants master specific skill sets necessary to function effectively in their jobs. Armed with the why from the teaching section, they now practice the how under the supervision of instructors. Practice makes perfect but only if practiced correctly.
The Newborn Survival Program is a workforce development initiative that builds capacity within the host country’s healthcare sector. Mentoring working professionals in the clinical setting allows for back and forth dialogue coupled with hands-on demonstration, which in turn allows for immediate feedback and correction if needed. Learners benefit from one-on-one access to an expert and instructors can adapt to the local clinical environment. The OSU Grief team also makes recommendations as needed or requested on Neonatal Intensive Care Unit set up, hygiene measures, infection controls, environmental settings and equipment usage.
Equipping
The OSU Greif team brings most of the basic equipment needed for teaching as often the host sites don’t have the equipment. We also bring extra of everything to leave with the working professionals in the class. Typically, participants come from multiple institutions and so need materials such as the simulator dolls to take back to their home institutions so that they may train their colleagues. Over the last three years, the program has supplied HBB training materials, Books such as Care of the Newborn, simulators dolls, bulb suctioners, scales, isolettes, pulse oximeters and probes, gloves, gowns, bag and masks and training materials for participants to continue the training after we leave.