Evaluation of Training Course on “Integrated Management of Neonatal & Childhood Illness” (IMNCI) Using Kirkpatrick Model at Level-2

Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMNCI), taught by a 6-day training course, is an important initiative to decrease childhood mortality. Level 2 of the Kirkpatrick model entails the assessment of the learning achieved by training activity.Objective: To assess improvement in the knowledge of IMNCI content among the participants of the 6-day IMNCI training program.Methods: After taking approval from IRB, this one-group pre-test-post-test study was carried out in the Paediatrics Medicine Department, King Edward Medical University / Mayo Hospital Lahore over 3 months. By non-probability consecutive sampling, all 77 participants of three 6-day courses (with no previous formal training of IMNCI) were included in the study. To assess any improvement in the knowledge (Kirkpatrick Model Level 2), each participant filled a pre-test and a similar post-test after the training.Data was analyzed by SPSS software. As the data was not normally distributed, the Wilcoxon test was applied to compare the overall median scores of pre-test and post-test. Kruskal-Wallis Test was applied for the comparison of the median scores of pre-test and post-test scores of each professional group. While Mann-Whitney U-test was applied for pairwise comparison of the pre-test and post-test scores between different pairs of professional groups.Results: Of the 77 participants, there were 35 doctors, 20 nurses, 20 Lady Health Visitors, and 2 midwives. The overall median score was 3 (IQR 3) of the pre-test and 8 (IQR 2) for the post-test (p-value < 0.001). Except for the midwives, there was a statistically significant improvement in the median score of each group. Item-analysis of the questions showed that compared to the pre-test, the proportion of correct answers in the post-test showed statistically significant improvement for all the 10 questions. Pairwise comparison of the median pre-test and post-test scores between different professional groups did not show statistical significance except for the doctor-nurse pair.Conclusion: IMNCI training program significantly increased the knowledge of health care providers with no statistical difference between the post-test scores of doctors, LHVs, and midwives. KEYWORDS: IMNCI, Training program, Kirkpatrick Model, Childhood mortality, Knowledge evaluation