A study to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on preterm care among the mothers of preterm babies

Introduction: Children are the precious gift of God. Dr. Abdul Kalam says, “Todays children are tomorrow’s citizen and leaders”. The resources spent on the care and health of the young are an investment of the future. The primary purpose of the study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers of preterm babies regarding preterm care and to evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on preterm care among the mothers of preterm babies and to correlate the knowledge attitude and practices of mothers of preterm babies with selected demographic variables. Methods:A quasi experimental study design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the structured teaching programme on “Preterm care among the mothers of preterm babies admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care and Referral New born unit at RMMCH, Chidambaram”. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices among 30 mothers of preterm babies regarding definition, causes, temperature regulation, nutritional requirements and infection control among the mothers of preterm babies. Conceptual framework used for the study was General System Theory. Results: The pretest revealed that the mother’s knowledge on preterm care was zero (0%) After structured teaching programme majority of the mothers knowledge on preterm care was improved to 90%. The favorable attitude towards preterm care before structured teaching programme was zero (0%). It became 100% after structured teaching programme. The good health practices in relation to preterm care before structured teaching programme was only 30%. It became 93.3% after the structured teaching programme. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the knowledge, attitude and practices of the mother was inadequate and poor before structured teaching programme. After structured teaching programme the knowledge, attitude and practice were increased significantly.