CClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03254628Updated Aug 22, 2017

Saving Lives at Birth in Uganda: Building and Sustaining Capacity of Frontline Health Workers - A Program Evaluation

An interventional study of Helping Mothers Survive - Bleeding After Birth training and Helping Babies Breathe in Postpartum Hemorrhage and Neonatal Asphyxia, sponsored by Jhpiego. Completed. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-08-22.

Sponsored by Jhpiego · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
3,440
Allocation
Randomized
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The study aims are to evaluate the impact of supportive follow-up strategies for a novel twinned training and capacity-sustaining program among frontline health workers (providers) attending facility-based births in remote and district level health facilities in Uganda. The program is designed to improve provider competencies, provider performance and health outcomes among women giving birth and newborns.

Read the detailed description

This study will take place in Uganda at Health Centers (level II, III and IV) and District Hospitals, to reach 'frontline' health providers who attend births. This study will take place in districts meeting study criteria in two regions to demonstrate ability to implement in different geographic settings and potential for scale up. It is a quasi-experimental design with three study arms/groups that receive different levels or intensities and modalities of the program intervention.

Briefly, the same simulator-based training will be provided in all three study arms. After the training, a simulator will be left in the health facility, and providers will be encouraged to practice with it regularly. In two of the study arms, specific health workers will be recruited to support the intervention by encouraging their colleagues to practice with the simulator. In one study arm, the practice will be further reinforced through mobile phone-based support. Following is a more detailed description of each of the three components.

Component 1 (Training): Training is composed of two separate training interventions. First, in each study facility, Ugandan master trainers (district trainers) will conduct a single day, simulator-driven training on PPH prevention and treatment; all providers who attend births will be invited to participate. Eight weeks later, in each facility, the same trainers will conduct a one-day, simulator-driven training for prevention and management of asphyxia in the newborn. After each one-day training, simulators will be left at the facility for practice with a corresponding practice schedule.

Component 2 (Peer-led Practice Sessions): On the day the first training (for PPH), 2 birth attendants at the facility will be selected to serve as clinical mentors (CM). The CMs will be trained to encourage their coworkers to participate in 15-minute practice sessions each week for 8 weeks, in which they will use the simulators to practice the skills learned in the one-day training. After the newborn asphyxia training occurs, these same CMs will be trained to support a similar practice schedule for the following 12 weeks - 8 weeks for newborn asphyxia practice and 4 weeks for combined PPH and asphyxia skills practice.

Component 3 (Mobile phone-based support): CMs will be connected to the district trainer via mobile phone for weekly phone calls during the practice periods to provide reminders and support for practice.

02

Conditions studied

  • Postpartum Hemorrhage
  • Neonatal Asphyxia
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
Child (0–17), Adult (18–64), Older adult (65+)
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • For Providers: Health providers who attend births in participating health facility and consent to be assessed at the time of enrollment and at several points in time over two years.
  • For Clinical mentors: being an experienced skilled birth attendant and likely to remain at the facility during the study period

For Women in Labor and Delivery and Newborns: Women in any stage of labor in participating facility who consent to observation of their delivery and care of their newborn (or consent from the next of kin if the woman is incapacitated and not able to provide consent)

Facility In-charges and Stakeholders: Facility in-charges at sampled health facilities; stakeholders identified by Jhpiego senior managers as being influential in maternal and newborn health policy decisions in Uganda.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Providers: has \<1 year of experience, and has plans to be transferred to another facility or leave the facility soon
  • Other types of participants: none
04

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Health services research
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
3,440 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Full - Train/oxy&miso/ B&M/Mentor/Phone

    Helping Mothers Survive- Bleeding After Birth training and Helping Babies Breathe training done at the facility, simulator present in each facility, oxytocin and misoprostol backfill, newborn bag and mask, designation of Clinical Mentor in each facility to support deliberate practice, phone-based support from district trainer for Clinical Mentor.

    Other: Helping Mothers Survive - Bleeding After Birth training · Other: Helping Babies Breathe · Behavioral: Mentor · Behavioral: Phone · Drug: oxytocin and misoprostol · Device: Newborn bag and mask

  • Experimental
    Partial - Train/oxy & miso/ B&M/Mentor

    Helping Mothers Survive - Bleeding After Birth training and Helping Babies Breathe training done at the facility, simulator present in each facility, oxytocin and misoprostol backfill, newborn bag and mask, designation of clinical mentor in each facility to support deliberate practice.

    Other: Helping Mothers Survive - Bleeding After Birth training · Other: Helping Babies Breathe · Behavioral: Mentor · Drug: oxytocin and misoprostol · Device: Newborn bag and mask

  • Active comparator
    Comparison - Train/oxy & miso/ B&M

    Helping Mothers Survive - Bleeding After Birth training and Helping Babies Breathe training done at the facility, simulator present in each facility, oxytocin and misoprostol backfill, newborn bag and mask,.

    Other: Helping Mothers Survive - Bleeding After Birth training · Other: Helping Babies Breathe · Drug: oxytocin and misoprostol · Device: Newborn bag and mask

Interventions

  • OtherHelping Mothers Survive - Bleeding After Birth training

    One-day training in postpartum hemorrhage prevention and treatment; this includes instruction to provide oxytocin within one minute of birth to prevent postpartum hemorrhage.

    Also known as: HMS BAB

  • OtherHelping Babies Breathe

    One-day training in neonatal asphyxia management; this includes routine care for the newborn, such as drying and stimulation immediately after birth, and resuscitation of asphyxiated newborns using a bag \& mask device.

    Also known as: HBB

  • BehavioralMentor

    A birth attendant in the facility is designated as a clinical mentor and encouraged to lead simulator-based practice sessions in the facility after training day.

    Also known as: CM

  • BehavioralPhone

    District trainers telephone clinical mentors and encourage them to lead practice sessions.

  • Drugoxytocin and misoprostol

    This study did not provide uterotonic drugs except in the case of stock out where locally purchased oxytocin and misoprostol were provided only as back up.

    Also known as: oxy&miso

  • DeviceNewborn bag and mask

    All facilities were supplied with at least 1 bag and mask for newborn resuscitation. This bag and mask was used for training, practice, and clinical care

    Also known as: B&M

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Difference in differences: change in use of oxytocin for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage

    The change in the percentage of women who received oxytocin in correct dose immediately after vaginal birth in three study arms, as assessed by direct clinical observation, using a standardized checklist.

    Time frame: Baseline, Midline (6 months), Endline (12 months)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in provider performance on simulator-based assessments

    The proportion of providers that obtain a passing score on the assessments, based on assessments done by clinical trainers.

    Time frame: Pre-test (before training)- post-test (immediately after training) - midline (6 months)

  2. Difference in differences: change in care of the mother composite score

    A composite variable of care provided to laboring mothers, based on direct clinical observation using a standardized checklist.

    Time frame: Baseline (before training), Midline (6 months), Endline (12 months)

  3. Difference in differences: change care of the newborn composite score

    A composite variable of care provided to laboring mothers, based on direct clinical observation using a standardized checklist.

    Time frame: Baseline (before training), Midline (6 months), Endline (12 months)

06

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

07

References and documents

Publications

  • Williams E, Bazant ES, Holcombe S, Atukunda I, Namugerwa RI, Britt K, Evans C. "Practice so that the skill does not disappear": mixed methods evaluation of simulator-based learning for midwives in Uganda. Hum Resour Health. 2019 Mar 29;17(1):24. doi: 10.1186/s12960-019-0350-z. PubMed 30925890 ↗
  • Evans CL, Bazant E, Atukunda I, Williams E, Niermeyer S, Hiner C, Zahn R, Namugerwa R, Mbonye A, Mohan D. Peer-assisted learning after onsite, low-dose, high-frequency training and practice on simulators to prevent and treat postpartum hemorrhage and neonatal asphyxia: A pragmatic trial in 12 districts in Uganda. PLoS One. 2018 Dec 17;13(12):e0207909. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207909. eCollection 2018. PubMed 30557350 ↗

Study documents

  • Protocol and statistical analysis plan · Dec 20, 2013
  • Informed consent form · Feb 4, 2015

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03254628
Lead sponsor
Jhpiego
Collaborators
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 18, 2017
Start date
Nov 14, 2014
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2016
Completion
Dec 31, 2016
Last update
Aug 22, 2017

Study contacts

Cherrie Evans, DrPH
principal investigator · Jhpiego

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Aug 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion