Video teaching program on management of colostomy: Evaluation of its impact on caregivers

CONTEXT: Care of a child having colostomy has not been institutionalized for a long time for economic and administrative reasons. After stoma formation, stoma care has to be provided to the child by caregivers at home. Hence, caregivers need to be provided with ongoing education and support, commencing from preoperative teaching to discharge from the hospital and home care. AIMS: The aims of this study were to develop video-based learning resource material and to evaluate its effectiveness in terms of knowledge and skill attainment by caregivers. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The study design was time series, one group pretest and post test. This was conducted among 30 caregivers attending pediatric surgery outpatients and indoor departments of a tertiary level care center. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A video teaching program (VTP) related to pediatric colostomy was developed and used to teach the caregivers about colostomy care. Pretested and validated knowledge questionnaire, observational checklist, and stoma assessment scale (SAS) were used to assess the knowledge and skills of caregivers before and after the administration of VTP immediately (post test 1) after and 2 weeks (post test 2) after the intervention. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), Bonferroni correction, Mann–Whitney U test, and Kruskal–Wallis test were used. RESULTS: There were significant increases in knowledge (from 10.9 ± 2.5 to 16.4 ± 1.67 and 15.9 ± 4.02, P = 0.001, maximum score 20) and skill scores as assessed by the observation checklist (from 5.6 ± 2.0 to 9.8 ± 1.6 and 8.6 ± 2.1, P = 0.001, maximum score 12) immediately after and 2 weeks after the VTP. However, a decline in skills was observed at 2 weeks when compared with immediate scores, as measured by the observation checklist. There was no significant increase in the skill scores of caregivers as measured by SAS at 2 weeks compared to the immediate scores. CONCLUSION: The VTP was effective in bringing about an increase in the knowledge and skill of caregivers of children having colostomy. Therefore, video can be utilized for the counselling of caregivers of children with colostomy.