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Children Born Preterm: How Are We Educating Providers?
Insights
Pediatric textbooks inadequately cover the health and neurodevelopmental risks for children born preterm, particularly in school-age and adolescent stages. Educational materials need updates to improve care for this vulnerable population.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nursing
- Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics
- Educational Content Analysis
Background:
- Prematurity impacts 10% of children in America, leading to potential long-term physical, psychological, neurodevelopmental, and behavioral issues.
- Nurse practitioners play a crucial role in primary and specialty care for children.
- Existing pediatric educational resources may not sufficiently address the needs of preterm populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the content coverage of children born preterm in select pediatric textbooks.
- To identify gaps in educational materials regarding the long-term health and neurodevelopmental risks associated with prematurity.
Main Methods:
- A summative content analysis was performed on six pediatric textbooks published between 2012 and 2017.
- Content related to preterm children was analyzed across newborn, toddler, school-age, and adolescent categories.
Main Results:
- The newborn category received the highest scores, with a mean of 32.4 (range 16-47).
- Textbooks demonstrated significant deficiencies in addressing school-age and adolescent children born preterm.
- The maximum possible score for content inclusion was 92, indicating substantial room for improvement.
Conclusions:
- Current pediatric textbooks inadequately address the health and neurodevelopmental risks faced by children born preterm.
- There is a critical need for revisions in pediatric textbooks and healthcare provider curricula.
- Enhancing educational content is essential to improve knowledge and care for preterm populations.
Background:
Prematurity affects 10% of American children. Despite excellent survival rates, children born preterm have potential long-term physical, psychological, neurodevelopmental, and behavioral impairments. Nurse practitioners are essential health care providers in primary and specialty settings. The specific aim was to examine select pediatric textbooks for content related to children born preterm.
Method:
Six textbooks published between 2012 and 2017 were selected and analyzed using summative content analysis to identify inclusion of content within newborn, toddler, school-age, and adolescent categories.
Results:
The newborn category earned the highest scores, ranging from 16 to 47 (mean = 32.4 ± 13.41, maximum possible = 92). All textbooks reviewed failed to adequately address topic categories for school-age and adolescent children born preterm.
Conclusion:
Pediatric textbooks fail to address the health and neurodevelopmental risks of children born preterm. Revisions to future textbooks and health care provider curriculum are needed to increased knowledge of this special population. [J Nurs Educ. 2019;58(6):339-346.].
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