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Healthcare professionals' perspectives on infant feeding support in paediatric inpatients: single-centre qualitative
Rosie Baker1, Elizabeth Evans2, Amy Fielden2
1Population Health Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Insights
Paediatric staff require enhanced infant feeding training to overcome barriers and improve support for families. Evidence-based education, focusing on communication and a baby-friendly environment, is essential for better outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Healthcare
- Nutrition Science
- Health Professional Education
Background:
- Assessing baseline knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) of pediatric staff is crucial for enhancing infant feeding support in hospital settings.
- Understanding current KSA levels informs the development of targeted educational strategies.
- Existing practices may be influenced by organizational barriers and personal beliefs regarding specialist feeding knowledge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the baseline knowledge, skills, and attitudes of pediatric healthcare professionals regarding infant feeding.
- To identify barriers and facilitators affecting the delivery of infant feeding support.
- To inform the creation of a comprehensive plan for improving infant feeding support.
Main Methods:
- A qualitative study involving semistructured interviews with 14 pediatric health professionals.
- Thematic analysis of transcribed interview data to identify key themes in infant feeding KSA.
- An online questionnaire was used to collect descriptive statistics from participants.
Main Results:
- Seven major themes emerged regarding infant feeding KSA, including culture, roles, training, professional self-perception, understanding parents, communication, and challenges with ill children.
- Staff expressed a willingness to support families but often felt limited by perceived requirements for specialist knowledge.
- Inadvertent influences from marketing and personal experiences affected staff's approach to infant feeding advice.
Conclusions:
- There is a clear need for evidence-based infant feeding education and training for pediatric staff, ideally delivered by experienced mentors.
- Training should encompass theoretical knowledge, practical support skills, communication strategies, and fostering a baby-friendly hospital environment.
- Implementing training aligned with UNICEF Baby Friendly Standards is recommended to benefit mothers and infants.
Objective:
To provide information on baseline knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) of paediatric staff to formulate a plan for improving infant feeding support in hospitals.
Design:
Semistructured interviews assessed baseline infant feeding KSA and experiences in 14 paediatric health professionals of various grades (medical students, healthcare assistants, ward nurses and specialist nurses). Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and underwent thematic analysis. An online questionnaire gathered descriptive statistics about participants.
Setting:
A single large hospital trust, North East England.
Results:
Seven major themes were identified in KSA: culture and trends, roles and working practice, training and resources, the health professional, understanding the parent, effective communication and the challenges of feeding the ill child.Staff discussed various organisational and personal barriers to acquiring infant feeding support training and experience, and to delivering feeding support. Staff were keen to support families with feeding but often felt constrained by a belief that this required specialist knowledge and skills. Although staff believed they actively promoted breastfeeding-friendly messages, it was evident that marketing communications and personal experiences inadvertently influenced their approach to families.
Conclusions:
The development of clear, evidence-based infant feeding education and training for paediatric staff delivered by experienced mentors is warranted. Training should cover background theory, delivering practical support, communication skills and creating a baby-friendly hospital environment. UNICEF Baby Friendly Standards would be suitable to inform content. Training is likely to be received positively by staff and benefit women and babies in this setting.
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