A Quality Improvement Project to Improve Education About Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) for Staff Members at Child Legacy International in Malawi, Africa

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the unexpected and unexplained death of a seemingly healthy infant. Significant risk factors for SIDS include sleeping position and sleeping environment. In well-developed countries, SIDS is a widely understood and preventable cause of infant mortality. In Malawi, Africa however, little is known about SIDS. The goal of this quality improvement project is to educate the staff of Child Legacy International (CLI) Hospital in Malawi, Africa about SIDS, ways to prevent it, and how to educate their patients in order to reduce the risk of infant mortality.

An initial cross-sectional survey will be conducted with hospital/clinic staff at Child Legacy International to assess their baseline knowledge and understanding of SIDS and whether education about SIDS is being provided to new mothers of infants. Next, a video lecture about SIDS and SIDS prevention will be delivered to the staff at intervals of once monthly for 3 months. Additional resources such as posters and informational brochures will be given to staff to implement into their prenatal and postpartum education and to give to new mothers after delivery. After the project has been completed, the same cross-sectional survey will be conducted for hospital/clinic staff to compare their pre- and post-implementation knowledge on SIDS and SIDS prevention. This will determine whether or not video lectures and educational material improved their knowledge or not.

Results of this project have not yet been collected.