Success of an Educational Intervention on Maternal/Newborn Nurses' Breastfeeding Knowledge and Attitudes

Objective:o test the effect of a breastfeeding educational program for improving breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of maternal/newborn nurses, and to improve their intentions to provide breastfeeding support to new mothers.Design:Quasi‐experimental, pretest/posttest design.Setting:Maternity units of 13 hospitals located in midwestern and east coast states.Participants:Nine experimental and three control hospital sites resulted in a convenience sample size of 240 registered nurses (RNs); 206 RNs in the experimental sites and 34 RNs in the control sites.Methods:Participation in the experimental groups involved the completion of two questionnaires upon study entry and then again after completion of a self‐study module. Participants in the control groups completed the two questionnaires twice with a 4‐ to 6‐week interval between them without access to the self‐study module.Main Outcome Measures:Nurses' breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and intentions to support postpartum mothers who are breastfeeding.Results:Findings suggest that this educational strategy was effective in improving maternal/newborn nurses' breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs, and intentions to support breastfeeding mothers.Conclusion:This self‐paced, study module, which is guided by an on‐site, trained staff member, may be a cost‐effective strategy for improving nurses' breastfeeding knowledge and support to new breastfeeding mothers. Nurses may find this type of teaching modality to be less intimidating than a structured classroom setting, and more desirable for their busy schedules.