Funded Projects

Problem:

The Mississippi Delta Region is one of the most distressed areas of the nation. Healthcare providers fight to improve health disparities of its maternal, neonatal and pediatric residents. This project will improve evidence-based educational opportunities in maternal child health (MCH) for these rural healthcare providers using new and innovative technologies.

Goals and Objectives:

Goal 1: Develop distance learning curricula fostering MCH leadership, competencies, and evidence-based practices, specifically addressing topics relevant to MCH professionals in the Delta to include racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse themes. Objective A: Present 80 new topics through interactive video distance learning. Objective B: Transform 80 topics presented through interactive video into web-based enduring materials. Goal 2: Increase attainment of MCH continuing education (CE) in the Delta through distance learning opportunities, specifically targeting outreach among racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse MCH professionals. Objective A: Compared to a collective baseline of CE granted to participants in the past year, increase total hours granted to Delta participants by 30%. Objective B: Achieve a total of 1500 CE hours granted through the initiative. Goal 3: Increase understanding and comprehension of MCH evidence-based practices among participants in the Delta. Objective A: Compared to a pre-test collected prior to interactive video or web-based enduring materials sessions, increase knowledge on the presented topic by 20%. Objective B: Collected by a randomized participant survey, demonstrate increased understanding and comprehension in presented topics by 20%. Goal 4: Improve translation of MCH evidencebased practices into care provided by participants. Objective A: Collected by a randomized participant survey, demonstrate improved translation in presented topics by 30%.

Methodology:

1) Expansion of telecommunicated educational offerings; 2) Development of website portal for educational offerings; 3) Target rural, ethnically and culturally diverse health care providers to attend educational offerings; 4) Develop evidence-based educational offerings based on emerging issues; 5) Transfer evidence-based educational offerings to enduring materials on the website; 6) Develop pre/post-tests for web based offering; and 7) Develop participant surveys. HP 2010 Objectives: Related to: 1-14, 3- 10, 7-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-5, 23-8 & 23-10.

Coordination:

Advisory board members, lecturers and users of the continuing education materials: Arkansas - Title V, CSHCN Program, and AR Dept. of Health, Title V program. MCH Training programs LEND, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Training Program Tennessee MCH Training Center - Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities Missouri Title V, Dept. of Health and Senior Services, Section for Healthy Families and Youth Alabama University of Southern AL, Women's Health Nurse Practitioner Program

Evaluation:

Review of Website Offerings Web-based Enrollment Survey Pre- and Post-Education Survey Continuing Education Event Evaluation Randomized Participant Follow-up Survey The evaluation team will employ these data collection tools to track the progress of the project on a quarterly basis throughout the funding period with the synthesis of information tabulated as annual reviews.

Experience to Date:

During Y1, 29 MCH topics were provided via Interactive Video (IAV) distance learning and 43 MCH presentations, provided live or IAV, were transformed into web-based enduring materials. During year 1, accreditation approval was sought and received through ANCC-COA to provide continuing nursing education. A total of 333 CE hours were provided through this initiative to the eight states in the Delta Region. Using the pre-existing IAV, live event and web-site infrastructure, this program witnessed an increase of 11% in MCH continuing education users and a 24% increase in the Delta region.