Podcasts on newborn home care: development, validation, and evaluation

Area of Science:

• Health Sciences
• Medical Education
• Digital Health

Background:

• Home care for newborns presents unique challenges for new parents.
• Accessible and reliable information is crucial for effective newborn home care.
• Existing educational resources may not fully meet the needs of diverse family caregivers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop, validate, and evaluate a series of educational podcasts focused on newborn home care.
• To provide a free, accessible, and engaging resource for family caregivers.
• To improve the quality of information and support available for parents during the postpartum period.

Main Methods:

• A methodological study conducted in a virtual setting over 11 months (February-December 2024).
• Development involved nine stages, including script preparation, expert content validation, recording, and evaluation by 32 family caregivers.
• Data analysis utilized the Concordance Index, with 16 experts involved in validation.

Main Results:

• All 14 podcast scripts were validated by experts with a 100.0% concordance index.
• The educational podcast series was evaluated by 32 family caregivers, achieving a 99.0% agreement rate.
• Participants included mothers, uncles/aunts, cousins, and grandparents, indicating broad applicability.

Conclusions:

• The "Podcasts do Parto ao Domicílio" ("From Childbirth to Home Podcasts") series is a validated and satisfactory educational resource.
• The 14-episode podcast series is freely available on a digital music platform.
• This initiative offers a novel and effective tool for supporting newborn home care education.