Pre-training Knowledge Research Articles

Development, validation and implementation of continuous professional development programmes for community pharmacists

In India, structured continuous professional development modules are not available to update the knowledge and skills of the practicing community pharmacists. A prospective study was designed to develop, validate and implement continuous professional development modules and to assess the impact of training programme on knowledge and skills of community pharmacists. Modules were developed by referring to standard texts and data bases and were validated for the content. The impact of training programme on pharmacists’ knowledge and skills was assessed using suitably designed pre and post training knowledge attitude and practice questionnaires, pre and post training questionnaires for individual continuous professional development training sessions, pre and post training patient counseling skill assessment, blood pressure measurement skill assessment and capillary blood glucose check-up skill assessment check-lists. Data was analyzed by applying suitable statistical methods using InStat version 3.01 statistical software. Fourty eight community pharmacists were enrolled in to the study. A statistically significant (P<0.05) improvement was observed in post training knowledge attitude and practice scores and in post training scores of individual training sessions. A statistically significant (P<0.05) improvement was also observed in post training scores of professional skills such as Patient counseling, capillary blood glucose recording and blood pressure measurement skills. The study findings conclude that continuous training updates the knowledge and skills in practicing the pharmaceutical care in their pharmacies.

An Evaluation of a Media Literacy Program Training Workshop for Late Elementary School Teachers

The present study examined the efficacy of a media literacy education, substance abuse prevention training workshop for late elementary school teachers. Analyses revealed that the randomly assigned intervention (n = 18) and control (n = 23) teachers were similar in demographic characteristics and pre-training beliefs and knowledge. Teachers who participated in the workshop reported stronger beliefs in the importance of and familiarity with media literacy education and scored higher on a direct assessment of media deconstruction skills than teachers in the control group. Teachers reported positive program assessment ratings. This randomized controlled trial provides evidence that a one-day teacher training workshop on media literacy education is effective at improving teachers' beliefs and knowledge about media literacy that are relevant for successful student outcomes.

Educational Impact of the Neonatal Resuscitation Program in Low-Risk Delivery Centers in a Developing Country

To evaluate the effectiveness of the American Academy of Pediatrics Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) in improving knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy of nurse midwives in low-risk delivery clinics in a developing country. We used the content specifications of the NRP material applicable to college-educated nurse midwives working in low-risk clinics in Zambia to develop performance and self-efficacy evaluations focused on principles of resuscitation, initial steps, ventilation, and chest compressions. These evaluations were administered to 127 nurse midwives before and after NRP training and 6-months later. After training, written scores (knowledge evaluation) improved from 57%+/-14% to 80%+/-12% (mean+/-SD; P< .0001); performance scores (skills evaluation) improved the most from 43%+/-21% to 88%+/-9% (P< .0001); self-efficacy scores improved from 74%+/-14% to 90%+/-10% (P< .0001). Written and performance scores decreased significantly 6 months after training, but self-efficacy scores remained high. As conducted, the NRP training improved educational outcomes in college-educated practicing nurse midwives. Pre-training knowledge and skills scores were relatively low despite the advanced formal education and experience of the participants, whereas the self-efficacy scores were high. NRP training has the potential to substantially improve knowledge and skills of neonatal resuscitation.

Training Nursing Students in Evidence-Based Techniques for Cognitive-Behavioral Pediatric Pain Management

This study evaluates the effects of a didactic training program for nursing students involving developmentally appropriate strategies for cognitive-behavioral pain management in children. Junior-level nursing students were assigned to one of two groups: training or control. Pretraining and posttraining knowledge and attitudes toward pain management were assessed. Implementation of cognitive-behavioral strategies was assessed via clinical role-play. Training participants had significantly more knowledge of cognitive-behavioral strategies after the training program versus before it, and they had more knowledge after the training program than did control participants. The training had no effect on attitude. In the role-play, training participants used a higher ratio of cognitive-behavioral strategies and implemented them in a higher quality manner than did control participants. These results suggest that a brief training program in cognitive-behavioral pain management can improve nursing students' knowledge of cognitive-behavioral pain management strategies and ability to implement them.

Training primary care nurses in late‐life depression: knowledge, attitude and practice changes

Aim. This paper reports on the uptake of a two-day late-life depression training programme with primary care nurses and its impact on knowledge, attitudes and the use of a brief screening protocol following training. Background. Late-life depression is a common condition associated with medical illnesses, impaired psychosocial functioning and risk for suicide. Although treatable, it is under recognized in primary care. Nurses have an important contribution to make to its detection, yet few studies have focused on training primary care nurses for this role. Design. An uncontrolled pre- and post-test design was used. Data were collected using the Late-Life Depression Quiz, the Depression Attitude Questionnaire (DAQ) and an Impact on Clinical Practice Questionnaire at 1 and 3 months. Seventy-three nurses commenced training and 66 completed the programme out of a total of 253 invited to participate. Results. Statistically significant differences were found between pre- and post-training for knowledge about late-life depression (P < 0.0005). No significant association was found between age, length of experience, level of contact and pre-training knowledge scores. Attitudes towards depression were more optimistic following training which were significant for nine of the DAQ statements (P < 0.05). However, when the overall level of significance was adjusted for multiple testing of 20 DAQ items, two remained statistically significant (P < 0.0025). Finally, a 77% response rate to the 1-month practice questionnaire and a 52% at 3 months showed that nurses were using the screening measure (mean 5.0, SD 7.71; mean 5.6, SD 7.71 respectively). Conclusion. A short training programme on late-life depression was effective in producing both knowledge and attitude change in primary care nurses. The use of a short two-item depression screening measure prompted nurses to complete more in-depth assessment for depression. Relevance to clinical practice. Training primary care nurses to identify and manage older persons with depression is essential to improve quality of life.

Financial Management Knowledge of the Low-Income Population

While financial management programs for the low-income population have developed in recent years, little is known about financial knowledge levels of participants in these programs. This study examines pre-training financial knowledge and related participant characteristics among participants in one large financial management training program for low-income people. Results indicate that knowledge deficiencies exist on basic financial management issues, especially with respect to public and work-related benefits and savings and investing. Results from regression analyses also indicate that participants' education, English proficiency, race/ethnicity and banking experience are among the factors associated with financial knowledge levels. Policy and practice implications for developing effective financial management training for low-income audiences are discussed.

Blue Ribbon Abstract Award

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Respiratory disease transmission continues to be an area of safety concern for healthcare personnel (HCP). We describe an experiment that uses a novel training method to demonstrate dispersion of particles during respiration and cough within the context of respiratory disease transmission. The study was conducted to determine whether supplementing standard classroom training methods regarding disease transmission with a visual demonstration can improve the use of PPE among Emergency Department (ED) nurses. METHODS: Participants in a pilot study included 20 ED registered nurses. General demographic information was obtained. All subjects first participated in classroom training dealing with infection control and disease transmission then completed a pre- and post-test to determine knowledge level. Subjects were then randomized into two groups, control and intervention. The intervention group received supplemental training consisting of a visual demonstration of respiratory particle dispersion using a human biosimulator. Both groups were then observed throughout their work shifts as they provided care during January-March 2005. RESULTS: Both the intervention group and the control group completed standard classroom training. The pre classroom training knowledge assessment indicated no difference between the intervention and control groups (t(19) = 1.11, p=.28). In the final dataset, there were 84 observations evaluated with 42 in each group. A Fisher's Exact test was performed to determine if the visual demonstration increased appropriate PPE use relative to the standard training alone. Results indicate that the standard training plus biosimulation significantly increased the use of PPE by nurses when providing care for patients with respiratory symptoms (p = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Analysis comparing the use of PPE between the subjects trained with or without a visual demonstration indicated that those who received the visual demonstration used PPE more often. The additional training resulted in a 21% increase in the use of PPE (74% versus 53%). This indicates that supplementing the standard training methods with a visual demonstration can improve the use of PPE by nurses when providing care for patients exhibiting respiratory symptoms. Supported by the <i>Research Foundation for Prevention of Complications Associated with Health Care</i> and cooperative agreements with the <i>Health Resources and Services Administration</i> and the <i>Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</i>

Applying trained skills on the job: The importance of the work environment.

The influence of the work environment on the transfer of newly trained supervisory skills was examined. Participants were 505 supermarket managers from 52 stores. The work environment was operationalized in terms of transfer of training climate and continuouslearning culture. Climate and culture were hypothesized to have both direct and moderating effects on posttraining behaviors. Accounting for pretraining behaviors and knowledge gained in training, the results from a series of LISREL analyses showed that both climate and culture were directly related to posttraining behaviors. In particular, the social support system appeared to play a central role in the transfer of training. Moderating effects were not found. Implications for enhancing the transfer of training are discussed

When is a “KO” OK? Capitalizing on existing knowledge structures to facilitate pre-training transfer

Abstract Emerging research on training suggests that cognitive and adaptive approaches to training design can facilitate the “pre-training transfer” of trainees' relevant knowledge and skills to the training context. Little empirical work has tested this notion, in part, because of a weak theoretical base and inadequately developed testable hypotheses. This article reviews instructional and cognitive research and proposes that training effectiveness is a function of the correspondence between training treatments (e.g., discovery, remedial, didactic) and the nature of the overlap between trainees' pre-training knowledge structures and training's target knowledge structures. We identify 5 different types of overlap that influence the selection, and subsequent effectiveness, of training treatments: congruence, unrelatedness, conflict, over-generality or over-specificity.

Accessing strategic knowledge: Individual differences in procedural and strategy transfer

College students' ability to spontaneously access prior knowledge in the form of a general procedure and a specific strategy was demonstrated using a training for transfer paradigm ( Phye, 1989 Phye, 1990). Students received practice on verbal analogy problems during training and were given a delayed transfer task requiring memory-based transfer. Motivational variables of confidence in pretraining knowledge and awareness of training performance were used to predict successful transfer of strategic knowledge. Individual differences in awareness best predicted subjects' ability to spontaneously access prior knowledge. Results are discussed within the context of transfer-appropriate processing ( Bransford, 1990) and transfer-appropriate procedures ( Roediger, 1990) models of learning and memory. The argument is made that both memory and transfer processes are used as “tools” by competent problem solvers.

Staff Training to Run Activity Groups with People with Profound Learning Disabilities: Evaluation of Attitude, Knowledge and Skill Changes

A training course designed to prepare staff to run stimulation groups for people with profound learning disabilities is described and evaluated. Nursing staff attending the day workshop improved significantly more than a control group in their attitudes, knowledge and skills (a simulated performance test) in relation to appropriate stimulation for this group. A profile of pre-training attitude, knowledge and skill is provided for different staff groups and it is shown that, prior to the workshop, nursing assistants had significantly more negative attitudes to such activities than trained staff or those in training. While each staff group improved on attitude and knowledge tests, nursing assistants alone failed to show post-training skill improvements. The practical implications of the results are discussed and the usefulness of the three measures assessed.

Evaluation of A Single Presentation Format For Education About Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Disease1

This study explored the efficiency and effectiveness of a single presentation format for education about human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. Pretraining and posttraining questionnaires assessing knowledge and risk assessment were given to police officers attending a two‐hour seminar on HIV disease. A one‐way ANOVA was used to compare posttraining scores of 42 officers who attended the seminar one year ago with the pretraining scores of 63 officers currently attending the seminar, some of whom had attended the seminar one year earlier. Significant differences were found on knowledge items (p &lt; .05). Post hoc analysis revealed no significant decline in knowledge scores after one year, while pretraining knowledge scores for those who had attended the seminar before were significantly greater than for those who had not. No significant differences were found on risk assessment items, suggesting that beliefs about on the job risk have become part of the officers' common culture.

Training primary care medical officers in mental health care: an evaluation using a multiple‐choice questionnaire

This report aimed to evaluate the mental health knowledge of primary care medical officers following short-term training in mental health care using a multiple-choice questionnaire. Seventy-eight medical officers who underwent 2 weeks' training in mental health care were assessed using parallel forms of a standardized multiple-choice questionnaire administered before and soon after the training. Young doctors scored significantly higher in the pretraining assessment. The medical officers demonstrated a significant gain in knowledge, although the amount of gain varied. Doctors who had relatively lower pretraining scores showed a higher gain. Six doctors (8%) showed less than acceptable posttraining scores. These doctors were older than the rest of the group. The doctors' pretraining knowledge was best with respect to epilepsy and poorest with respect to manic-depressive psychosis. Items pertaining to epidemiology and aetiology elicited relatively less gain than other clinical dimensions.

Evaluation of an AIDS Prevention Education Program for Health Service Providers Working with IV Drug Users

A 12-hour training program was designed and pilot tested on 46 staff from three methadone maintenance and detoxification clinics. Also, 525 clients enrolled in a methadone clinic completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge of AIDS and then participated in an AIDS education program. The staff and the patients had a high level of pretraining knowledge of AIDS. Both groups showed marginal improvement following education.