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Topics in Perinatal Education

Perinatal Services BC supports education for health care providers who practice across the continuum of perinatal care.

 

With the support of the UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund, Dr. Campbell, Dr. Krebs and their team of interdisciplinery professionals have created multiple Open Education Resources. Highlighting the physiology of lactation as well as the foundational methods of breastfeeding within different scenarios, the team has created interactive modules used for educational purposes.

Direct access to modules:

This 10 to 15-minute module will provide medical and surgical specialist physicians with the information and tools to be able to offer breastfeeding support and medical management in British Columbia.

Latching on: How Family Physicians Can Support Breastfeeding Patients online course


Breastfeeding is important for the lifelong health and wellbeing of both parent and baby. As a care provider you have an important influence on a parent's infant feeding decisions. Check out our redesigned and updated online modules to learn more about how you can best support breastfeeding families. There are two modules available, with content that has been tailored to your specific needs as a primary care provider or specialist physician. This course is tailored content for primary care providers.


 
 

According to the World Health Organization, “a health care provider is likely to be the first professional contact for survivors of intimate partner violence or sexual assault,” two of the most common forms of gender-based violence.


This free four-course training series "Gender-Based Violence: We Can All Help Improving the Health Sectors Response‎" will help you to understand, identify, respond to, and address gender-based violence. As health sector workers, we all have a role to play in supporting those who have experienced or are living with gender-based violence.

 
New eLearning course:

The UBC Midwifery CPD Program, a partnership between UBC Midwifery, Midwives Association of BC (MABC) and BC College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM), together with support from Perinatal Services of BC (PSBC) and Trans Care BC, are pleased to announce the launch of a new online course for all perinatal care providers:


Gender-Affirming Perinatal Care: Safe, Respectful and Celebratory



Online eLearning | Any Time

Audience: midwives, family physicians, specialists, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, residents and students. 
Overview: This one-hour online course is designed to support perinatal care workers and staff to offer an inclusive and respectful experience for Two-Spirit, non-binary and transgender people and their families through pregnancy and the postpartum period. Make your practice safer, identify strategies for supporting an inclusive and welcoming practice for gender diverse community.

Up to 1.0 Mainpro+/MOC Section 3 credits

Learn more and register


 

5As of Healthy Pregnancy Weight Gain online course


This is a free short online continuing medical education course designed for family physicians, midwives, nurse practitioners, obstetricians, and dietitians offering antenatal care in Canada. This course will introduce you to an office-based framework to help you discuss and manage gestational weight gain with your patients.

The 5As of Healthy Pregnancy Weight Gain Toolkit is intended to help primary care practitioners discuss and manage gestational weight with their patients. The 5As (Ask, Assess, Advise, Agree, and Assist) framework ensures sensitive, realistic, measurable, and sustainable obesity management strategies that focus on improving health and well-being, rather than simply aiming for numbers on a scale.





You can order the toolkit that includes a practitioner guide, practitioner checklist, readiness ruler, and desk reminder. 

 
Are you aware that Kangaroo Care has been shown to improve preterm infant growth and development with physiologic and immunologic benefits? To learn more about Kangaroo Care as a standard of care for preterm infants and parent-infant skin-to-skin contact, take the "Strengthening Kangaroo Care for Preterm Infants in British Columbia: Online Course", a self-paced and interactive course developed in partnership with UBC Continuing Professional Development.

This course is divided into four lessons:
  • Introduction to Kangaroo Care
  • The Evidence for Kangaroo Care
  • How to Safely Practice Kangaroo Care
  • Strengthening Kangaroo Care in NICUs

 

Journey to Perinatal Wellbeing: eTools and Resources to Identify and Support Women with Perinatal Depression and Anxiety is an online course for health care providers to support the capacity to identify and respond to perinatal depression and anxiety. The course will help build skills and expertise to screen, assess and effectively intervene with families where a parent (or parents) are experiencing perinatal depression and anxiety. 


The course contains an introductory module, four lesson modules, and a short graded test module. The estimated time for completion of the course is 2.5 to 3 hours.


Not Just The Blues: Perinatal Depression and Anxiety

Perinatal depression and anxiety can have significant immediate and long term consequences for the parent, child and family. This online continuing medical education provides a basic overview of perinatal depression and anxiety; including common risk factors, screening, treatment approaches, and treatment planning. Through evidence based material, quizzes, and interactive video vignettes learners will gain an understanding of the importance of routinely screening for perinatal depression and anxiety and become more comfortable with the steps to doing so. The estimated time for completion of the course is 1.5 hours.


 
Whether you are a medical lab assistant, a nurse, or a midwife, you are an integral part of the newborn screening team. The "Newborn Screening Blood Spot Collection Online Training Tool"online module will help you prepare to take blood collections and covers topics such as equipment, techniques, and supporting families. The intent is to help new staff learn about the newborn screening process, and be a refresher for existing staff. With staff all over BC successfully completing this course, the primary goals are to improve the blood spot card quality and to reduce the need for repeat collection. The secondary goals are to reduce procedural pain and support breastfeeding and the Baby-Friendly Initiative.

This online training tool is a quality improvement initiative developed by the BC Newborn Screening Program in collaboration with BC Women's Hospital, BC Children's Hospital, BC Agency for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Child Health BC, and Perinatal Services BC. Special acknowledgements and thank you to the families who participated with interviews, photography, and filming as part of this production.

 
Care of the Newborn Exposed to Substances during Pregnancy

In British Columbia the incidence rate in neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) has risen from 2.6 to 4.7/1000 livebirths between 2010 – 2018. Newborns diagnosed with NAS have longer and more costly length of stay in hospital, especially when treated with morphine, imposing an increased economic burden on the BC health care system. More significant is the negative effect of current management strategies on the long term mental and physical well-being of the newborn diagnosed with NAS and the family.

Perinatal Services BC in partnership with BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre (BCW), Fraser Health Authority, and UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Division of Continuing Professional Development (UBC CPD) are proud to announce the release of an online course and suite of documents designed to build knowledge and skills required to deliver evidence-based and standardized care to the newborn exposed to habit-forming substances during pregnancy in all levels of acute and community care settings. The online learning module reviews the current evidence and best practices including the Eat, Sleep, Console Care Tool and non-pharmacological care interventions.

Substance use image of baby in parent arms.png


The aim of the "Perinatal Substance Use in Pregnancy" modules are to provide education and support for evidence-based, woman-centred, trauma-informed, and culturally safe care for women with substance use disorders and infants exposed to substances during pregnancy. 

The course has been designed for family physicians, obstetricians, midwives, neonatologists, registered nurses, and pediatricians and is divided into four modules:

1. Principles of Care
2. Care during Pregnancy and Labour
3. Care of the Newborn Exposed to Substance Use during Pregnancy (including Eat, Sleep, Console - core neonatal curriculum).
4. Supporting Newborn and Caregiver at Discharge for Optimal Care at Home.

These combined modules, and particularly the "Care of the Newborn Exposed to Substance Use during Pregnancy", can act as foundational education for Eat, Sleep, Console, (ESC), but also includes other relevant and related content. 

The online course Module 3: Care of the Newborn Exposed to Substances during Pregnancy is part of the UBC CPD Perinatal Substance Use online learning modules.

Documents:
The ESC Care Tool is a function-based assessment tool that assesses how the newborn eats, sleeps, and consoles and is best practice evidence-based care and:
o aligns with trauma informed, culturally safe care and newborn responsive care 
o promotes mother and baby togetherness 
o promotes the use of non-pharmacological strategies to support the newborn during the acute phase of substance withdrawal 

Please do not make any site specific changes to the ESC Care Tool. Please contact Jola Berkman at jola.berkman@phsa.ca if you have any questions.

This video developed by Dr Sannifer Hoi, clinical pharmacist, Victoria General Hospital NICU and Dr Marie-Noelle Trottier-Boucher, a paediatrician in Victoria, is a great learning resource for sites considering the use of PRN morphine in the pharmacological management of substance use withdrawal in the newborn. Since most sites in BC are still transitioning to the ESC Care Tool, this video refers to both the Finnegan Neonatal Abstinence Scoring Tool and the Eat, Sleep and Console Care Tool


This resource reviews the current evidence and best practices in the care of the newborn exposed to substances during pregnancy, including the Eat, Sleep, Console Care Tool and non-pharmacological care interventions.
Content in this practice resource was derived from Module 3: Care of the newborn exposed to substances during pregnancy that is part of the UBC CPD Perinatal Substance Use online learning modules. 

The current evidence as to when to initiate medication, treatment regimens, dosing, weaning protocols and use of adjunctive management is limited. Evidence does show that a standardized pharmacological management protocol with clear weaning guidelines decreases the length of pharmacological intervention and hospital stay. The Treatment Algorithm for the Newborn Exposed to Substance(s) in Pregnancy is a proposed guideline that is currently in use at BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre.

 

OTAS Scales

How to access OTAS Education

The OTAS modules created at BC Women’s Hospital in 2016 have been updated and adapted to reflect provincial context. The work was completed by a collaborative working group, made up of members from every Health Authority. The members contributed to content while ensuring the modules are reflective of all sites across BC. The education bundle is now live and can be accessed on the Learning Hub. ‎

 

Perinatal Substance Use Online Course
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