Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2011 Apr;96(4):330-4.
doi: 10.1136/adc.2010.190801. Epub 2011 Jan 12.

Successful e-learning programme on the detection of child abuse in emergency departments: a randomised controlled trial

Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Successful e-learning programme on the detection of child abuse in emergency departments: a randomised controlled trial

A E F N Smeekens et al. Arch Dis Child. 2011 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an electronic learning (e-learning) programme on the performance of nurses in the recognition of child abuse in a simulated case in the Emergency Department (ED).

Design: Blinded, randomised controlled trial using pre- and postintervention design.

Setting: The ED of a University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Participants: 38 ED nurses were included, 25 nurses were analysed.

Intervention: Half of the participants followed a 2-hour e-learning programme focused on the recognition of child abuse, the others acted as a control group.

Main outcome measurements: Individual performance during a case-simulated parent interview to detect child abuse and self-reported self-efficacy for the detection of child abuse. Performance on the simulation was scored by an expert panel using a standardised assessment form which was designed to score quantity and quality of the questions posed by the nurse (minimum score 0; maximum score 114).

Results: During post-test, nurses in the intervention group performed significantly better during the simulation than the control group, (89 vs 71, 95% CI 2.9 to 33.3), and reported higher self-efficacy (502 vs 447, 95% CI -25.4 to 134.7). Performance in detecting child abuse correlated positively with the self-efficacy score (Spearman correlation 0.387, p value 0.056). Comparing post- and pretest results separately for the intervention and the control group showed a significant increase in performance in the intervention group.

Conclusion: E-learning improved the performance in case simulations and the self-efficacy of the nurses in the ED in the detection of child abuse. Wider implementation of the e-learning programme to improve the first step in the detection of child abuse is recommended.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00844571.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

Associated data