Abstract:
This paper reviews evidence regarding change in health-care
provider behaviour and maternal and neonatal outcomes as a
result of emergency obstetric and neonatal care (EmONC) training.
A refined version of the Kirkpatrick classification for programme
evaluation was used to focus on change in efficiency and impact of
training (levels 3 and 4). Twenty-three studies were reviewed e
five randomised controlled trials, two quasi-experimental studies
and 16 before-and-after observational studies. Training programmes
had all been developed in high-income countries and
adapted for use in low- and middle-income countries. Nine studies
reported on behaviour change and 13 on process and patient
outcomes. Most showed positive results. Every maternity unit should provide EmONC teamwork training, mandatory for all
health-care providers. The challenges are as follows: scaling up
such training to all institutions, sustaining regular in-service
training, integrating training into institutional and health-system
patient safety initiatives and ‘thinking out of the box’ in evaluation
research.
