The ultimate outcome measurement for the Newborn Care Course project would of course be a reduction in neonatal mortality in the areas where we work. There are so many confounding factors in any clean data that is actually collected that it is almost impossible to prove that one intervention like this has any statistically significant effect on neonatal mortality. But our funders always ask for outcome measures. This year in Cameroon we changed the feedback form a bit, bringing it more into line with the template suggested by the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. This has allowed us to measure pre- and post- course confidence in the main areas identified by WHO as contributing to newborn deaths. Here are the results from last month’s course:
The challenge now, of course, is to keep that confidence up going forwards.