Supplementation of breastfed infants: does continuing education for nurses make a difference?

Supplementation of breastfed newborns in the first few days of life is a common practice that interferes with the establishment of lactation and is related to early cessation of breastfeeding. Quality assurance audit results at a large maternity hospital led to the development of a continuing education program to increase nurses' knowledge of breastfeeding and thereby reduce supplementation. An integrated quality assurance and research methodology was selected to analyze the impact of the education and yield results that would be more generalizable and interest a wider audience. Findings revealed no change in supplementation behavior occurred following a four-week education program. Only 33 percent of newborns in the study were unsupplemented during their hospital stay. Formula was the most often used supplement. Continuing education alone was not effective in changing behavior. As shown in the literature, post-course reinforcement of behavior needs to be built into the cost of the program to implement and sustain desired changes.