Professional educational interventions designed to improve knowledge and uptake of immunisation

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Professional Education
• Program Evaluation

Background:

• The Healthy Child Programme (HCP) aims to improve child health outcomes.
• An e-Learning Programme was developed to support professionals in delivering the HCP.
• Evaluating educational interventions for healthcare professionals presents unique challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify suitable methods for evaluating an educational intervention designed for healthcare professionals.
• To explore the complexities of evaluating the transfer of learning from educational interventions to practice.
• To inform the evaluation design for the HCP e-Learning Programme, focusing on the immunisation module.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature review was conducted to find evaluation methodologies for professional educational interventions.
• The review focused on interventions aiming to improve knowledge and practice.
• A conceptual framework was developed by mapping factors influencing immunisation uptake.

Main Results:

• Few published studies met the search criteria for evaluating educational interventions.
• No studies evaluated the transfer of learning to practice improvement or included stakeholder perspectives.
• The evaluation of the HCP e-Learning Programme's immunisation module identified complexities in attributing practice improvements solely to the intervention.

Conclusions:

• Evaluating the impact of educational interventions on professional practice is challenging.
• Measuring the direct link between learning and improved outcomes requires robust evaluation frameworks.
• Further research is needed to develop effective methods for evaluating healthcare professional education and its impact on public health outcomes.