Evaluation and need of education programs for community hospital nurses providing neonatal care

Phase I: Of 204 RN's providing neonatal care in community hospitals in east Georgia and who were examined using a standardized test, those from large hospitals (greater than 1,000 live births/year) performed significantly better than those from medium or small hospitals (P less than .05). Also, there was negative correlation between test scores and years of experience in areas of the hospital other than the nursery and percent of employment time currently spent in areas of the hospital other than the nursery. Phase II: An educational program in neonatal nursing was then provided to 48 RN's by the authors and to 12 RN's by peer-instructors. At the end of the course of instruction a posttest was given. Thirteen RN's who received no formal instruction served as a control group. On the posttest, both experimental groups performed significantly better than the control group (P less than .01), but the group taught by the authors scored significantly higher than the group taught by peers (P less than .05). Educational programs taught by RN's from the community hospital staff are not as effective in regional educational programs as instruction by course by developers.