Nepal Laerdal strengthens maternal and newborn care through simulation-based education

Simulation-based learning, as used in vocational education and training in industrialised countries, enables health care professionals to learn treatment methods without compromising patients' wellbeing. Whereas patient simulators are already used in most countries, they are still relatively new in Nepal, so that mainly traditional teaching methodologies are being applied. Midwives, nurses, doctors and other health care professionals learn the necessary treatment methods as part of their training, applying them directly on patients. As well as risking the patient’s safety, this may lead to more errors being made during treatment. By providing patient simulators and integrating simulation-based learning into training, the quality of maternal and newborn care can be greatly improved. Companies such as Laerdal can make a contribution here with its products and services and gain access to new markets and trained specialists to help improve quality of care. The framework conditions are favourable: the Nepalese Government made reducing maternal and newborn mortality a health policy priority back in 2014. 

The aim of the project was to integrate simulation-based education into the training of midwives and health care professionals in order to improve maternal and newborn care in Nepal. With a project volume of around EUR 400,000, the project partners implemented the following measures between 2018 and 2021: 

• Training of university faculty members and skilled birth attendant trainers in hospitals in the use of simulation-based teaching methods, together with the implementation of the midwifery curriculum.
• Strengthening of psychomotor and cognitive skills transfer in Bachelor’s degree programmes for midwives thanks to specially equipped simulation laboratories at two universities.
• Introduction of skills labs and teaching modules into the training of midwives, nurses and doctors at seven training centres for skilled birth attendants. Each of these centres is a tertiary care hospital in the seven provinces of Nepal.
• Expansion of the training programme to at least two additional universities or affiliated educational institutions.
• Development of national guidelines for the establishment of simulation laboratories, provision of training courses on simulation-based education to faculty members, integration of simulation into midwifery curricula, and development of teaching tools. 

Laerdal and GIZ supported the Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (KUSMS), the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), the Ministry of Health & Population (MoHP), the Nepal Nursing Council (NNC), the National Health Training Center (NHTC) and seven skilled birth attendant training sites in developing teaching methods for simulation-based learning and integrating them into pre-service and in-service midwifery training.
 

The use of patient simulators and simulation-based teaching methods have improved the training of midwives and the quality of maternal and newborn care significantly. Simulation-based learning is now an accepted standard in education at several universities in Nepal. 

• Simulation-based learning is an integral component at NAMS, KUSMS, many training centres for skilled birth attendants and multiple other educational institutions in Nepal 
• Over 85 per cent of prospective birth attendants learn on patient simulators
• Four other universities and educational institutions have requested about the training programme in simulation-based education