Needs Assessment
Research confirms that today’s parents need and want more
practical information to understand and care for their newborn. Understanding
an infant's behavior and responding effectively to infants' body language
promotes parent-child interaction and boosts parent confidence. Consequently,
nursing and midwifery students are expected to interact with and teach new
parents about newborn behaviors and newborn care, although many initially lack
the knowledge and confidence to do so. Education research suggests that
computer-based teaching methods, such as online learning modules and web-based
videos, appeal to today’s students, enhance learning, and promote confidence
and self-efficacy. Video teaching of infant behavior is especially critical
because students can SEE the behaviors they are studying without the stress of
simultaneously interacting with parents.
HUG Your Baby Online
Training Course
HUG Your Baby offers midwifery schools a two-hour,
digital program which provides practical, evidence-based information about:
newborn behavior, how to interpret and respond to an infant’s cues and body
language, and how such information impacts the developing parent-child relationship
and breastfeeding success. This program,
available online in Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Japanese or for uploading to an institution’s digital
system, includes: six 10-12 minute video lessons (with convenient “come and go”
format); 4 short case studies to read;
and a post-test, as well as a course evaluation, to complete. (See this
two-minute YouTube description of the course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeUHk8-fNy4)
School of Nursing Research
Dr. Kathy Alden (alden@email.unc.edu), Associate Professor at University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing (UNC-CH SON), completed a
pilot study assessing the effectiveness of this HUG Your Baby course.
One
hundred pre-licensure nursing students in the control group received UNC-CH
SON’s usual maternal-child teaching about newborn behavior and care. Between
semesters, the SON’s faculty received HUG training. The following semester a
different one hundred students formed the intervention group and received the
schools’ usual maternal-child teaching along with this two-hour digital course
completed outside of class.
Research Results
Compared to the control group, the intervention
group demonstrated significantly greater knowledge about newborns and increased
confidence to teach new parents. In addition, the intervention-group students gave
a positive evaluation of the HUG program and recommended that it be
incorporated into the traditional maternity course. Dr. Alden has submitted this study for publication. A larger, multisite, replication study is now underway
with UNC-CH, Duke University, and Johns Hopkins University Schools of Nursing.
Other HUG Your Baby research available here: http://hugyourbaby.org/hug-research/
Contact Jan Tedder at hugyourbaby@earthlink.net for more information about how to bring this program to your nursing or midwifery program.
Other HUG Your Baby research available here: http://hugyourbaby.org/hug-research/
Contact Jan Tedder at hugyourbaby@earthlink.net for more information about how to bring this program to your nursing or midwifery program.