The MomConnect Nurses and Midwives Support Platform (NurseConnect): A Qualitative Process Evaluation.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Mobile Health Interventions
• Healthcare Capacity Building

Background:

• Mobile health (mHealth) adoption is increasing in low- and middle-income countries.
• NurseConnect, a component of South Africa's MomConnect program, supports nurses in maternal and child health.
• The National Department of Health plans to expand NurseConnect nationwide, necessitating user experience evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate nurse and midwife perceptions and usage of the NurseConnect platform.
• To gather feedback for optimizing the user experience during NurseConnect's scale-up.
• To identify barriers and facilitators for NurseConnect registration and engagement.

Main Methods:

• Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted with 110 nurses and midwives.
• Participants were selected from 18 randomly chosen healthcare facilities across South Africa.
• Data collection focused on mobile phone use, information access, and NurseConnect experience.

Main Results:

• High mobile phone penetration and frequent use for accessing medical information were observed.
• Registered NurseConnect users appreciated message content, particularly for behavior change.
• Underutilization of the mobisite and helpdesk was linked to a lack of awareness and training; data and time constraints were barriers for unregistered users.

Conclusions:

• High mobile phone use presents an opportunity for mHealth interventions like NurseConnect.
• Targeted marketing, enhanced training, and improved data/Wi-Fi access are crucial for improving NurseConnect registration and platform engagement.
• Addressing user-identified barriers is essential for the successful nationwide scale-up of NurseConnect.