Implementation of iPads to Increase Compliance With Delivery of New Parent Education in the Mother–Baby Unit: Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background Abusive head trauma (AHT) is a serious health problem affecting more than 3000 infants annually in the United States. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that health care providers counsel new parents about the dangers of AHT. Previous studies demonstrate that parental education is effective at reducing AHT events. South Carolina law requires hospitals to offer all new parents with the opportunity to watch an educational video about AHT. This mandate is addressed in different ways at the several delivery centers within a large South Carolina health care system with a range of viewing methods utilized, from DVD players to mobile workstations to personal devices. Frequent technical barriers and workflow inefficiencies resulted in low rates of compliance with this mandate at several campuses. To improve compliance of parent viewing of this educational video, the health care system standardized video viewing protocol across all campuses by implementing the use of iPads for parental education. Existing literature suggests that patient education can be improved in the hospital setting by utilizing tablet computers, but our literature search identified a gap in research around the education of parents and caregivers during hospitalization for childbirth. We used the implementation of an iPad-based parental education delivery protocol to evaluate whether tablet computers can improve compliance with delivering new parent education in the hospital setting. Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the standardized use of iPads to deliver education in the mother–baby unit resulted in improved rates of parents’ acceptance of the opportunity to view an educational video about AHT. Methods We interviewed physicians and nurses to determine what previous protocols were in place to educate new parents before a standardized iPad-based protocol was implemented across 6 campuses of a large South Carolina health care system. A retrospective study was conducted by review of 5231 records from across the 6 campuses to determine the pre- and postintervention compliance rates of viewing the AHT educational video by parents in the mother–baby unit. Results Compliance increased overall (P<.001) across sites from an average of 41.93% (SD 46.24) to 99.73% (SD 0.26) (φ=0.510). As much as 4 of 6 locations saw a significant increase in compliance rates after introducing the iPad intervention (P<.001). The remaining 2 locations that showed no significant difference (P>.05) had very high rates of preintervention compliance. Conclusions Following the implementation of a standardized iPad-based protocol to deliver new parent education, there was a significant improvement in the percentage of new parents who viewed an educational video about AHT in the mother–baby unit. Based on these results, other health care providers should consider iPads to be a feasible and effective method for delivering hospital-based education to families in the mother–baby unit.

The Effectiveness of Parental Education Programs within Neonatal Intensive Care Units: A Systematic Review

“…These studies utilized videos, reflective journaling, knowledge checks, a mobile app, question/answer sessions, and pictorial instructions to supplement the provided education. [29][30][31][32][33][34] [16][17][18][19][20][21]23,26,27,29,30,33,34 , three were self-directed learning 24,25,34 , three were provided by a physical therapist or allied health professional [30][31][32] , and one each by psychologists 32 , midwives 15 , and senior neonatology trainees. 28 Table 2.…”

“…Video, reflection questions, session activities, knowledge checks, practice opportunities 32 Direct instruction, mobile app 30 Direct instruction, narrated slides, Q&A 29 iPad video, handout 34 Video, handout 33 Direct instruction, video, written/pictorial instructions 31 Critical Appraisal was computed utilizing the Randomized Control Trial and Quasi-Experimental Checklists from the JBI. 12 A total percentage "grade" for each article was calculated by converting the number of items achieved in the checklist compared to the number of items.…”

“…20,22 A moderate effect size of 0.46-0.64 was calculated for six parental outcomes from five different studies. [18][19]29,[33][34] Sixteen parental and educational method outcomes resulted in a high effect size, ranging from 0.76-5.4. Parental outcomes with high effect sizes were mother and father perceived self-confidence, parental stress, anxiety, parental satisfaction, parental role competence, and preparedness to discharge.…”

Engagement Measures in Maltreatment Prevention Studies: A Scoping Review

“…In total, 21 studies included explicit definitions of engagement (Supplemental Appendix B). Several studies defined engagement as a unidimensional construct such as attendance (Corso et al, 2010;Smith et al, 2018), the number of sessions completed (Baggett et al, 2017), homework compliance (Pavuluri et al, 2021), retention (Folger et al, 2016), "the actual receipt of a visit" (McCurdy et al, 2006(McCurdy et al, , p. 1198, and "receipt of a high dose of visits" (McFarlane et al, 2010, p. 541) defined as greater than 75% of expected visits (McFarlane et al, 2010). Others operationalized engagement as multidimensional constructs encompassing the cognitive, affective, attitudinal, and behavioral domains (Byrnes et al, 2010;Coatsworth et al, 2018;Schoenfelder et al, 2013).…”