Influence of Structured Training Programme on Healthcare Workers’ Knowledge of Recommended Postnatal Care Services in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: The lack of continuous training of maternal and child healthcare providers has been identified as one of the factors contributing to the poor quality of maternal and child healthcare services in Nigeria. OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to evaluate the level of postnatal care-related knowledge among healthcare workers in Osun State and the impact of a structured training program on their learning. METHOD: A quasi-experimental research design using pre-test and post-test control groups was utilized in this study. One hundred and sixty-one healthcare workers were recruited from six Local Government Areas (LGA) and randomized into intervention and control groups. The healthcare workers in the intervention group (n = 82) were exposed to a 3-day structured training program. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data before, immediately, and 3-months after the training. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, t-test, and repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) with posthoc pairwise comparison. RESULTS: The mean ages of healthcare workers in the intervention and control groups are 40.96 ± 6.91 and 42.52 ± 7.58, respectively. At baseline, the mean knowledge score of the intervention and control groups were 60.0 ± 11.6 and 63.7 ± 10.4, respectively. There is a significant difference in the mean knowledge score of healthcare workers in the intervention group compared with those in the control group immediately after the training (t = 12.04, p < .001) and after 3-months of data collection training (t = 5.92, p < .001). A multivariate linear regression confirmed the positive effect of group membership (intervention vs. control) on the post-test knowledge among respondents (p < .001). CONCLUSION: An educational training significantly improved the knowledge of healthcare workers on the recommended postnatal care.