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2023-04-30
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Copyright (c) 2023 Estefanía Henríquez Luthje, María Fernanda Díaz Soto, Jasmin Garcia, Gabriela Henríquez Luthje, Miguel Mejía Sang, Tanya Pablo González, Angelica Floren, Nola Holness
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Empowering nurses in rural eastern Dominican Republic: a pathway to improved quality care for maternal and neonatal patients through education
Estefanía Henríquez Luthje
University of Minnesota School of Public Health
María Fernanda Díaz Soto
Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo
Jasmin Garcia
Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo
Gabriela Henríquez Luthje
Universidad Iberoamericana
Miguel Mejía Sang
Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center
Tanya Pablo González
Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo
Angelica Floren
University of Miami
Nola Holness
Florida International University
Abstract
Despite near-universal maternal and neonatal health care coverage, high maternal and neonatal mortality rates remain significant challenges in the Dominican Republic. Therefore, the Ministry of Health has prioritized efforts to improve the quality of reproductive, maternal, and child health services and recognizes nurses’ education in obstetrics and perinatal care as a core strategy for this goal. In line with these national priorities, a multidisciplinary team, in collaboration with the Regional Health Service, developed a program to empower 30 obstetric and neonatal nurse leaders from critical facilities through education in the Eastern Dominican Republic, the region with the third-highest concentration of live births.
The program’s initial phase, which began in July 2019, consisted of a year-long, five-part workshop that addressed topics ranging from newborn baby care and resuscitation to pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postpartum evaluation and complications. In addition, participants were provided with ongoing support through a video gallery and a web-based chat for sharing questions, successes, and challenges directly with program staff and regional authorities. Feedback from participant nurses was overwhelmingly positive, with many reporting improved clinical knowledge, skills, and confidence and an increased sense of empowerment. Many communicated being able to, for the first time, successfully manage maternal hemorrhages, diagnose hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, counsel breastfeeding mothers facing latch issues, and provide neonatal resuscitation.
Recognizing nurses’ value, particularly in settings where their abilities are often underestimated, can increase their sense of empowerment and confidence in serving others, enabling them to fulfill the critical role they play in the health of mothers and infants in the Dominican Republic. As a result, the Dominican Foundation for Mothers and Infants (DOFMI) acknowledged the importance of establishing similar programs on a national level, while also continuing to concentrate their long-term maternal and child health efforts on this specific region, which was particularly...
