An evaluative survey to assess the effectiveness of using an interactive workbook to deliver bereavement education to undergraduate student midwives

BACKGROUND: the NMSF (2009) reported that 74 Trusts (40%) in the UK lack expertise in delivering maternity based bereavement care. In response, three midwifery lecturers were issued with a small grant from NHS Scotland to devise and evaluate an interactive workbook intended to develop student midwives understanding of how to deliver high quality bereavement care.

AIM: to develop a workbook called--'an interactive workbook to shape bereavement care for midwives in clinical practice'--and evaluate it for effectiveness at delivering learning objectives developed from the literature and from prior written lesson plans.

METHOD: an evaluative audit was carried out using a scored questionnaire--Understanding Bereavement Evaluation Tool (UBET)--to gather data before and post-workbook completion. The UBET was purposely designed to gather data about participants' perceived level of learning before and post-workbook completion. Participants were student midwives (n=179) in their second/third year of study on a three year midwifery degree programme at one of three universities.

FINDINGS: the mean pre-workbook UBET score equalled 16.04 (SD=3.81) and post-intervention 26.45 (SD=2.16). A significant main effect of observation point was observed (p<0.001), with post-intervention scores considerably higher than pre-intervention.

DISCUSSION: findings demonstrate that the workbook is an effective method for teaching bereavement care to student midwives (it is available from the first author).