EFFECTIVENESS OF WORKSHOP AND MENTORSHIP TRAINING METHODS ON ORAL HEALTHCARE SERVICES DELIVERY AMONG KENYAN NURSES -A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Background: The knowledge-practice translation of oral health training
workshops amongst nurses is minimal, despite consistently improved
knowledge scores. Conversely, mentorship is postulated to produce better
knowledge-practice conversion. No study has compared effectiveness of these two training approaches in translating oral health knowledge to service delivery.
Objective; Compare effectiveness of workshop and mentorship training models on oral health services delivery among nurses.
Methodology: This was a quasi-experimental study using pre-post- test design among 67 nurses (33 intervention, 34 control). All nurses underwent one- day workshop. The intervention group underwent one- year mentorship program while control group had no other intervention. Service delivery was assessed at baseline, six and twelve- months using exit interviews among 1128 parents seeking child welfare services from the nurses (570 intervention and 558 control). Results compared pre-post proportions of parents receiving oral health education, proportion of children examined, and overall service delivery score. Chi square was used for significance testing set at P<0.005.
Results: There was significant improvement in pre- post-proportions of parents receiving oral health education for intervention and control groups (0% to 66.3% and, 1.3% to 7.7%). Similar changes were observed in percentage of children examined for early oral health abnormalities (0% to 66.3% and, 0% to 9.6%) and, children reviewed at first contact below six months (0% to 68.5% and, 0% to 9.6%). In summative comparison, the intervention group exhibited significantly better improvement in individual and overall service score compared to the control group (0.4% to 62.4% and, 0.3% to 9.2%). However, the percentage of parents presenting child oral health complaint remained low across the two groups (0.5% to 1.1% and, 2.6% to 1%). Conclusion: Mentorship was more effective in translating oral health knowledge to service delivery compared to workshop method. There is need to improve demand for child oral health services among parents.