Effectiveness of Workshop on Infection Control of Home-use Mechanical Ventilation for Home-visiting Nurses

Abstract

  The learning outcomes were evaluated of individuals who attended a training seminar on “Infection Control in Home-care Patients on a Ventilator”—the final session of the 12 sessions of the “Infection Control Education Program for Visiting Nurses.” The subjects consisted of 15 visiting registered nurses from two visiting nurse agencies. The seminar was conducted for an hour on a weekday evening for each agency group. To evaluate their learning outcomes, we first examined their acquired knowledge and skills for 34 items regarding infection control in home-care patients on a ventilator before and after the seminar (prior and post learning), and analyzed changes. For each parameter, we calculated the mean value of each learning outcome from “not capable at all=1 point” to “fully capable=5 points.” To make a comparison between prior and post learning, we used the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and to draw a comparison between learning outcomes and visiting nurses' attributes, we used the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.The overall mean in learning outcomes showed an increase from 3.1 points prior to learning to 4.1 points post learning. Learning outcomes for all item parameters showed a rise in scores post learning. We discovered that participants who experienced an “increase” in overall learning outcomes were greater in ratio than participants who experienced “no change” or a “decrease.” These results enable us to conclude that our seminar helped those participants achieve their learning objectives. Nevertheless, we should further investigate learning contents and methods, particularly for the items associated with low score gains post learning.