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Objectives Improve nursing confidence in newborn nursing care at district government hospitals in Madhesh Pradesh Methods A survey taken by the NNEPCP programme asked 32 nurses across 12 government hospitals in Province 2 Nepal why an SNCU cannot be opened was due to lack of trained nurses. The survey demonstrated nurses' confidence were low in looking after newborns.1 1 out of 7 East hospitals offer tertiary care with 1 paediatric nurse across province 2. With data collected, a model was created of 2 nurses from district hospitals spending between 3–7 days at a tertiary hospital shadowing nurses with the NNEPCP team with a nursing skills workbook figure 1. This skills book was written by gathering evidence of content needed. This was done by communicating with staff in province 2 about their confidence in skills, reflection upon other skill books and needs of opening an SNCU. The nurse would then shadow allocated nurses and complete day to day tasks alongside NICU nurses whilst being able to get their skills book signed off demonstrating they have completed and learnt skills. The NNEPCP team funded transport and accommodation for nurses and met with myself, nurse in charge and went through guidelines, induction and to support. A survey was taken pre and post their shadowing experience seeing if they gained confidence and skills. Results 2 nurses from district hospitals visited a tertiary hospital for 7 days in the East and 1 from the West for 4 days at their tertiary centre. To facilitate, a guideline was developed to support NICU nurses and the district nurses to guide and inform them of what was expected, shift times, using the skills book and logistics. NNEPCP mentors supported local NICU nurses to teach, supervise and sign off competencies for visiting nurses. The pre and post survey was completed in full by 2 nurses on the pilot scheme – they had been working for 4–6 years as a nurse and had no previous newborn nursing training or newborn unit experience. Figure 2 shows change in confidence or experience over the 7-day shadowing period. Conclusion A pilot programme to support visiting nurses from district hospitals with newly opened newborn units was successfully implemented at 2 tertiary NICUs with positive feedback from nurses who took part. The next goal is improving the reach of the programme and offer spaces to all district hospitals. Reference A McLoughlin, et al. Unpublished data RCPCH conference 2024 submission.
Watson et al. (Tue,) studied this question.