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Dissemination of Best Practices in Preterm Care Through a Novel Mobile Phone-Based Interactive e-Learning Platform

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Indian Journal of Pediatrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

To describe an innovative interactive e-learning method to disseminate knowledge to larger group of participants over a wide geographical area.

Methods

The course material included standard training tool “Best Practices in Preterm Care,” hosted on Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging platform. The participants were enrolled in the group created on Telegram by the facilitators and included in-service nurses from India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and UAE. They were mentored by 62 facilitators over 10 wk. Content of each module was loaded every week on two specific days. Mentors specified for that week facilitated learning through discussions. There was a live session every week to address any additional queries and to summarize the key messages of the week. Each week ended with weekly assessments through quiz.

Results

In this course, 4623 nursing professionals from India and Southeast Asian Region involved in providing neonatal care, participated. There were 9939 posts with an average of 126 posts per day. Majority of the participants felt that the topics were relevant (~95%) and they were comfortable in asking questions and could clarify their doubts (~90%). Majority rated their overall experience as very good to excellent (~98%).

Conclusions

Interactive e-learning using the current approach if channelized optimally seems to be acceptable and feasible method to reach wide geographical area. This, however, needs local champions ready to mentor their own health professionals with context-specific guidance.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all faculty from the National Neonatal Forum of India (NNF India) and the Indian Association of Neonatal Nurses (IANN) for endorsing the preterm package and App (available as Preterm Care on iOS and as WHO CC PTC on Android). Both organizations were instrumental in nominating faculty and the enrollment of participants for the e-course. The authors also thank the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, UK for supporting the development of the standardized package for preterm care for prevention of retinopathy of prematurity.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India

    Pratima Anand

  2. Department of Pediatrics, WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and Research in Newborn Care, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 110029, India

    Anu Thukral & AK Deorari

Authors
  1. Pratima Anand
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  2. Anu Thukral
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  3. AK Deorari
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Consortia

National Neonatology Forum Network

  • Amanpreet Sethi
  • , Amit Kumar
  • , Anita Yadav
  • , Anitha Balachandran
  • , Ankita Raj
  • , Ashutosh Kumar
  • , Asim Kumar Mallick
  • , Baby Mondal
  • , Bharathi Balachander
  • , Bijan Saha
  • , Boby Varghese
  • , Cecilia M.S
  • , Chithra Sajeev
  • , Debashish Nanda
  • , Deena Thomas
  • , Devajit K Sharma
  • ,  Dolma
  • , Gitanjali Kalyan
  • , Glenda Palha
  • , Heena Dabas
  • , Jessy Shaji Paul
  • , Jiya Jose
  • , Jogender Kumar
  • , Kavita Sreekumar
  • , Lakshmi S
  • , Lalan K Bharti
  • , Levis Murry
  • , M Alimelu
  • , Madhu Bains
  • , Mahendra Jain
  • , Mamta Jajoo
  • , Mayank Priyadarshi
  • , Meena Joshi
  • , N Madhavi
  • , Neeraj Gupta
  • , Nitasha Bagga
  • , Pankaj Mohanty
  • , Parul Dutta
  • , Persy Joy K
  • , Poonam Joshi
  • , Poorva Gohiya
  • , Prashantha YN
  • , Priyanka Joseph
  • , Rajiv Sharan
  • , Rashna Dass Hazarika
  • , Ravi Sachan
  • , Reeta Bora
  • ,  Rimple
  • , Romesh Gauttam
  • , Ruchi Rai
  • , Sai Sunil Kishore
  • , Sara Susy John
  • , Seema Sharma
  • , Shamnad Madathil
  • , Shashidhar A
  • , Shwetal Bhatt
  • , Sindhu Sivanandan
  • , Sofiya Steven
  • , Sreeram Subramanian
  • , Srikanth Kulkarni
  • , Srishti Goel
  • , Suksham Jain
  • , Suman Dabas
  • , Suman Rao
  • , Surender Singh Bisht
  • , Tanushree Sahoo
  • , Tejo Pratap Oleti
  •  & Ushoshee Ghosh

Contributions

PA had the primary responsibility for protocol development, study implementation, data management and writing the manuscript; AT and AKD participated in development of the protocol and supervised implementation of the study and contributed to writing of the manuscript and did data analysis; AKD would act as guarantor of the study. NNF author team participated in implementation of the study for the entire duration and contributed to protocol development.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to AK Deorari.

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Anand, P., Thukral, A., Deorari, A. et al. Dissemination of Best Practices in Preterm Care Through a Novel Mobile Phone-Based Interactive e-Learning Platform. Indian J Pediatr 88, 1068–1074 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-021-03689-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-021-03689-6

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