Accelerating Newborn Survival in Ghana Through a Low-dose, High-frequency Health Worker Training Approach

September 21, 2017 updated by: Jhpiego
This study assesses the effect of a low-dose, high-frequency training approach on long-term evidence-based skill retention among skilled birth attendants and impact on adverse birth outcomes at hospitals in Ghana.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

In-service training for skilled birth attendants (SBAs) is one of the most common interventions to address lack of knowledge and skills. However, these training interventions are seldom evaluated for effectiveness in improving learning or performance.

This study study is a cluster-randomized waitlist trial implemented in 40 public and mission hospitals in Ghana. It assesses the effect of a low-dose, high-frequency (LDHF) training approach to update hospital-based SBAs in key evidence-based intrapartum and immediate newborn care practices, using current global guidelines.The LDHF approach includes two 4-day onsite sessions (low dose) with weekly practice sessions, SMS quizzes and reminders, and mentoring via mobile phone and onsite visits between trainings (high frequency). The low-dose sessions include competency acquisition through simulation, case-based learning, and small content packages spread over short time intervals.

Eligible hospitals will be stratified by geographic region and caseload, and then randomly assigned to one of four implementation waves. The pipeline randomization allows for rigorous evaluation while the program is rolled out to all facilities.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • ADULT
  • OLDER_ADULT
  • CHILD

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

INCLUSION CRITERIA - FACILITIES:

  • Public or faith based hospital
  • At least three skilled birth attendants on staff
  • At least 30 births per month

EXCLUSION CRITERIA - FACILITIES:

  • Private hospital
  • Public or faith based hospital with less than three skilled birth attendants on staff
  • Public or faith based hospital with less than 30 births per month

INCLUSION CRITERIA - SERVICE PROVIDERS:

* Health providers who attend births in participating health facilities and consent to be assessed at the time of enrollment and at several points in time over the study period

EXCLUSION CRITERIA - SERVICE PROVIDERS:

* Health providers who decline to participate

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention
Low-dose high-frequency health worker training approach to update skilled birth attendants in key evidence-based intrapartum and immediate newborn care practices
  • Two 4-day training sessions for skilled birth attendants
  • 1-day peer practice coordinator training after first training session
  • Weekly, peer-led practice sessions using MamaNatalie® and NeoNatalie™ anatomic models
  • SMS reminder messages and quizzes
  • Routine telephone calls between master mentors and peer practice coordinators, and between project staff and master mentors
  • Health information officer training
  • Data collection and use training
  • Supply of simulators, newborn resuscitation equipment, and delivery sets
Active Comparator: Comparison
Training on data collection and reporting
Training on data collection and reporting

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
institutional twenty-four hour newborn mortality rate
Time Frame: 1 day
death within 24 hours, or before discharge, of a newborn who breathed at birth
1 day
institutional intrapartum stillbirth rate
Time Frame: 1 day
proportion of all facility births that resulted in intrapartum stillbirth
1 day

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
skilled birth attendant knowledge and skills
Time Frame: Pre-test (before training) - post-test (immediately after training) - endline (12 months)
score on written and practical examinations on routine and emergency obstetric and newborn care
Pre-test (before training) - post-test (immediately after training) - endline (12 months)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Patricia Gomez, Senior Technical Advisor

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

September 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 28, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

February 28, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 19, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 19, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

September 25, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 25, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 21, 2017

Last Verified

September 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • OPP1087303

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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