Development of Competencies in Feeding of Children Less than Two Years Old Among Pediatric Interns

Abstract

Introduction: Growth and nutrition are basic topics in pediatrics; Although its content is part of undergraduate education, there is limited evidence of the acquisition of knowledge and skills achieved.
Objective: Evaluate competencies developed to promote adequate nutrition and growth in the first two years of life in pediatric interns rotating in two hospitals with different educational processes.
Method: A quasi-experimental study with intervention developed at the Medical School of Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia. It included 17 interns from hospital one, which did not have scheduled educational activities for feeding and growth, and 24 from hospital two, which had scheduled educational activities on these topics, with seven theoretical hours and 25 practical, individually and in groups, face-to-face and online. Competencies were evaluated with four objective structured clinical evaluation stations that assessed counseling, breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and growth. The data were analyzed in SPSS. To identify differences between the two comparison groups the Student’s t test was used. Normality and homogeneity of variances were verified, and Student’s t value adjusted if less than 0.05.
Results: The results showed that the group of hospital two had a better response in the objective structured clinical evaluation, obtained 23.86 more percentual points in knowledge (p 0.000 95% CI –33.07 to –14.63) and a difference of 15.02% in the rubric (p 0.000 95% CI –20.68 to –9.35) in relation to the group of hospital one.
Conclusions: The differentiated teaching-learning process improves the knowledge and skills of the pediatric interns. The limiting factors for acquiring skills were: the interns’ lack of time, the allocation of non-educational activities and the lack of opportunity to apply preventive and promotional care in hospitals; and the facilitating factor is the mandatory fulfillment of theoretical and practical activities.