Purpose
To improve the knowledge and skills of hospital maternity staff on care practices that support optimal infant nutrition and lactation care in diverse populations.
Description
EMPower Best Practices, in partnership with Abt Global, is a hospital-based quality improvement project aimed at improving the knowledge and skills of hospital staff in labor and delivery, postpartum, and newborn care. The skills-based competency training supports optimal infant nutrition and lactation care in diverse populations.
The competency-based curriculum and technical assistance support hospital staff to ensure maternity care policies and practices related to optimal infant nutrition are implemented safely and equitably for each mother and infant. All educational content follows guidelines from the World Health Organization and Baby-Friendly USA.
Early Impact
Over 125 hospitals across the United States are participating in the EMPower program. Participating hospitals report annual births ranging from 42 to 7,700 with a median of 1,100. EMPower Best Practices has the potential to impact over 180,000 births annually in diverse and rural populations. Participants that have completed the training are overwhelmingly satisfied with the training with 97.5% reporting that the training meets its objectives. By September 2024, around 10,000 nurses will have completed the EMPower Best Practices training.
The University of North Carolina Hospitals trained all doctors, nurses, lactation consultants, and staff who work with newborns and provide infant feeding services in EMPower Best Practices. They were the first hospital to be assessed and achieve redesignation on the latest edition of Baby-Friendly USA Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria. This success was partly due to their participation in EMPower Best Practices.