Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme (STP) on Knowledge Regarding Care of Low Birth Weight Babies Among Staff Nurses Working at Hospitals of Vidarbha Region

Background: One of the factors contributing to infant mortality is low birth weight. For the effective and successful care to low birth weight babies, adequate knowledge and skill is essential for the safe and effective care, thus a present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding care of low birth weight babies among the staff nurses of pediatric ward.

Materials and Methods: An evaluative study was carried out among purposively selected 60 staff nurses of pediatric ward in the selected hospitals of Vidarbha region. A pre tested structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge on care of low birth weight baby. The structured teaching programme was devised by researcher and administered as intervention for enhancement of knowledge on LBW baby. The data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics wherever required.

Result: Study subjects gained excellent knowledge regarding care of low birth weight babies after structured teaching that is 29.54%. A statistically significant difference was observed between pre test and post test results at 5% level of significance. There was no significant association found between knowledge and the demographic variables of participants.

Conclusion: Thus the study concluded that the structured teaching on care of low birth weight babies was effective in improving the knowledge on various aspects of LBW baby among staff nurses. It is essential to raise the knowledge among health care professionals to tackle the care of LBW babies.