Structured learning in paediatric vascular access: effects on clinical practice.

Abstract

Vascular access is an essential skill requirement for many health professionals. Traditionally, in-house medical and nurse training has revealed limited paediatric vascular access experience. To critically evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of a structured learning and assessment framework for paediatric vascular access and its impact on improving the learning experience, skill acquisition and retention of health professionals. A two-part retrospective (group 1) and prospective (group 2) study involving 49 health professionals was undertaken. Purposive sampling was used with the study method of survey to evaluate learning experience and assess if learning had been transferred into practitioner clinical practice. Overall 61% of participants in group 1 were competent 12 months post training. In comparison, 57% in group 2 were competent 10 weeks post training. Findings highlight encouraging results with improvement in practitioner learning experience, skill acquisition and retention post framework implementation. A structured programme incorporating assessment is required with the use of multi-evaluation methods to evaluate education effectiveness.