Although significant progress has been made to increase prenatal care access, national organizations concerned with health equity emphasize that eliminating disparities will require greater attention to quality of care, assessed from both the biomedical and patient perspectives. In this study, we examined narratives about pregnancy experiences from low-income primiparous African American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and White women who participated in focus groups conducted in 1996. We reanalyzed transcripts from these discussions, extracting passages in which women talked about the content and quality of their prenatal care experiences. Data were mapped to four domains reflecting patient-centeredness markers identified in the 2005 U.S. National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR). These markers include the extent to which the women perceived that their provider listened carefully, explained things, showed respect, and spent enough time with them. The narratives provided by the study participants suggest a critical and intuitive understanding of the NHDR patient-centeredness markers and some shared understanding across cultural groups. Implications for improving quality and its measurement in prenatal care are discussed.
Objectives
To support governments' efforts at neonatal mortality reduction, UNICEF and the American Academy of Pediatrics launched a telementoring project in Kenya, Pakistan and Tanzania.
Methods
In Fall 2019, an individualised 12‐session telementoring curriculum was created for East Africa and Pakistan after site visits that included care assessment, patient data review and discussion with faculty and staff. After the programme, participants, administrators and UNICEF staff were surveyed and participated in focus group discussions.
Results
Participants felt the programme improved knowledge and newborn care. Qualitative analysis found three common themes of successful telementoring: local buy‐in, use of existing training or clinical improvement structures, and consideration of technology needs.
Conclusions
Telementoring has potential as a powerful tool in newborn education. It offers more flexibility and easier access than in‐person sessions. This project has the potential for scale‐up, particularly when physical distancing and travel restrictions are the norm.
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