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European online postgraduate educational programme in neonatology—the way forward?

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Abstract

The provision of specialist postgraduate training is increasingly challenging for the acute medical specialties. There are often small numbers of trainees and tutors in any one centre, and service commitments may limit attendance at educational activities. Online learning can provide high-quality education to trainees from large geographical areas. We report the outcomes of an experimental educational project which provided an online postgraduate programme in neonatology. Ninety trainees from 14 countries, primarily European, participated. Six educational modules in neonatal topics were delivered over a 1-year period, within a “Virtual Learning Environment”. Trainees were divided into multi-national groups; two online tutors supported each group. Analysis of online activity demonstrated that active participation was high initially (100%) but gradually declined to 46% in the final module; tutor participation followed a similar pattern. Eighty-six trainees were contactable at the end of the programme, and 67 (78%) completed an evaluation questionnaire. Of these, 92% reported that participation had “added value” to their training, attributable to the high-quality curriculum, the educational resources, collaborative networking and the sharing of best practice. Eleven (79%) tutors completed the questionnaire, with all reporting that participation was of educational value. The main limiting factor for trainees and tutors was insufficient time. This project confirms that multi-national online education in neonatology is feasible and transferable, but for this approach to be viable formal accreditation and protected time for both trainees and tutors are required.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this work was provided by The European Commission: Leonardo Da Vinci Programme. Gérard Bréart, Eduardo Doménech, Esther Fackeldey, Christian Heiring, Chris Jarvis, Begoña Loureiro-Gonzalez, Maggie Meeks, Jalshan Sabir, Tore Nilstun, Ryan Watkins.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neonatal Medicine, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton, UK

    Michael A. Hall

  2. Unit of Epidemiology, Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù, Rome, Italy

    Marina Cuttini

  3. Division of Neonatology, Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich, Grösshadern Marchioninistr. 15, 81377, Munich, Germany

    Andreas W. Flemmer & Andreas Schulze

  4. Department of Neonatology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Gorm Greisen

  5. Academic Division of Child Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2UH, UK

    Neil Marlow

  6. School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Susan Smith

  7. Hospital de Cruces, University of the Basque Country Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain

    Adolf Valls-i-Soler

  8. Service de Médecine Néonatale, Lille, France

    Patrick Truffert

  9. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

    Gráinne Conole

  10. Exeter University, Exeter, UK

    Maarten de Laat

  11. Department of Neonatal Medicine, The Princess Anne Hospital, Coxford Road, Southampton, SO16 5HA, Hampshire, UK

    Michael A. Hall

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  1. Michael A. Hall
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  2. Marina Cuttini
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  3. Andreas W. Flemmer
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  4. Gorm Greisen
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  5. Neil Marlow
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  6. Andreas Schulze
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  7. Susan Smith
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  8. Adolf Valls-i-Soler
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  9. Patrick Truffert
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  10. Gráinne Conole
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  11. Maarten de Laat
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael A. Hall.

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Hall, M.A., Cuttini, M., Flemmer, A.W. et al. European online postgraduate educational programme in neonatology—the way forward?. Eur J Pediatr 168, 449–456 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-008-0770-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-008-0770-6

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