School of Nursing & Midwifery Annual Report 2018

Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC

A Skills based programme of education for the provision of breastfeeding support

The Story: Breastfeeding is widely considered the best option in terms of maternal and infant health both for short and long term health outcomes for the infant. Despite the international evidence of benefits to public health, rates in Ireland remain one of the lowest in Europe. The current effectiveness of breastfeeding education for Health Care Professionals (HCP) is unknown. Empirical evidence suggests that there is poor breastfeeding competence and confidence among HCPs. Therefore, it was timely to examine systematically the provision of breastfeeding education, review the underpinning pedagogy and develop its curriculum to meet the needs of the population. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to develop a level 3 skills based programme of education for the provision of breastfeeding support relevant to nurse/midwives, public health nurses, practices nurses and community medical

doctors. The project had 3 phases: analysis and synthesis of empirical research; collation of national data including telephone interviews with key stakeholder breastfeeding educators on current skills based education. The third and final phase was a combination of both phase 1 & 2 to inform and develop an evidence-based curriculum. The skills education package is separated in this report for teaching, learning and assessing reasons into cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills. The proposed education programme was presented at a national workshop setting attended by breastfeeding experts and those previously involved in delivering training. The final curriculum is currently being considered by the National Office for Breastfeeding including the National Breastfeeding Co-ordinator. Once signed off, it is envisaged that this curriculum will be embraced nationally by all educators who provide skills based education and thus provide a standardised approach to National breastfeeding skills education.

PROJECT OUTLINE

PHASE 1: systematically search and review literature for breastfeeding skills education. • Conduct a review of empirical literature to examine best practice in skills based breastfeeding training for Health Care Professionals, informed by PRISMA. • Conduct a focussed review of grey literature informed by national breastfeeding experts and reported using PRISMA.

The Team: Dr Patricia Leahy-Warren and Dr Helen Mulcahy

Selected References:

Mulcahy H, O’Connor M, Leahy-Warren P (2017) A Pilot educational initiative to enhance student public health nurses’ breastfeeding support competence. Internal Medicine Review. 3 (10) 1-9 Mulcahy, H., Leahy-Warren, P. (2019) ‘Developing an evidence- based breastfeeding skills curriculum’ Poster to be presented at 21st congress of the Nordic Federation of Midwives to be held in Reykjavik 2-4th May 2019

PHASE 2: Identify, describe and collate national existing breastfeeding skills training programmes. Access public and private providers. Focus on facilitator qualifications as well as skills, teaching strategies & assessment.

PHASE 3: Collate findings from empirical and grey literature review, informed by consultation with key stakeholders to develop an evidence-based curriculum.

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