Project IMPROVE

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Project IMPROVE

Star Legacy Foundation is committed to providing education to health professionals and others aimed at reducing stillbirth and providing optimal care for parents when their baby is stillborn.  The PSANZ organization in Australia and New Zealand has developed a curriculum we have found to address the issues most important for these objectives and we have partnered with PSANZ to bring this curriculum to North America.

Improving Perinatal Mortality Review & Outcomes Via Education (IMPROVE) Workshops

Death of a baby is a devastating event for both the families and the professionals looking after them. In order to try to answer the questions raised by such deaths, a structured approach is required. Prior to attending an IMPROVE workshop, many health care professionals report feeling ill equipped to handling these issues and the workshop aims to provide tools to help the family and the healthcare facility at this time.

IMPROVE covers appropriate practices around principles of bereavement care, communicating with parents about autopsy, clinical examination, placental and post-mortem examination, investigation, classification, and audit of stillbirth. If you would like to host an education session at your hospital please contact us at [email protected] or call 952-715-7731

Methodology

The IMPROVE workshop utilizes the Structured, Clinical, Objective, Referenced, Problem-orientated, Integrated and Organised (SCORPIO) educational model designed for skills training. This involves small groups of learners rotating around six interactive learning stations that are each facilitated by an experienced educator. The principle of incorporating best evidence content and using best evidence teaching methods is fundamental to the course design.

IMPROVE involves:

  • A short introductory lecture
  • Six teaching stations
  • Formative Assessment
  • Workshops are four to six hours in duration and are delivered by trained clinician educators.

Who should attend?

The workshops are designed for health care professionals including obstetricians, midwives, neonatal nurses, neonatologists, pathologists, bereavement specialists, social workers, or those interested from a policy or public health perspective. IMPROVE workshops provide an opportunity for participants to understand the Perinatal Mortality Guidelines in an interactive way.

IMPROVE is a national program

To date IMPROVE has trained over 1,200 health care professionals across Australia and New Zealand.  Star Legacy Foundation is the North American partner bringing IMPROVE to North America.  The content of the IMPROVE Program may be modified slightly for each location to ensure that the information provided is consistent with local processes. These modifications, which are largely to incorporate local forms and contact persons, will be made in consultation with the IMPROVE coordinator and approved by the Star Legacy Foundation IMPROVE Medical Advisory Board.

Continuing Education Accreditation

Star Legacy Foundation is in the process of seeking approval for accredited continuing education credits for IMPROVE for physicians, midwives, nursing and other appropriate professional categories.

IMPROVE involves

1. A short introductory lecture
2. Six teaching stations
3. Formative Assessment

 

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