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Background: Improvement of the quality of maternal and child health care remains a focus in India. Working with the Government of Bihar, CARE-India facilitated a comprehensive set of quality of care improvement initiatives. PRONTO's simulation and team-training was incorporated into the large-scale Apatkaleen Matritva evam Navjat Tatparta (AMANAT)nurse-mentoring program of the Government of Bihar supported by CARE-India to improve maternal and child health outcomes. Along-with the AMANAT program, the PRONTO components provided training on nontechnical and technical competencies for managing a variety of obstetric and neonatal conditions, as a team. This study assessed the effectiveness of nurse-mentoring including simulations on intrapartum and newborn care practices in 320 basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care (BEmONC) facilities., Methods: Deliveries were observed to obtain specific information on evidence-based practice (EBP) indicators before and after the intervention. Intrapartum and newborn care composite scores - were calculated using those EBP indicators. A web-based routine monitoring system provided total training days, weeks and days/week of training and counts of simulation and teamwork-communication activities. Multilevel linear regression was used to examine the exposure-outcome associations., Results: The final analysis included 668 normal spontaneous vaginal deliveries (NSVDs) from 289 public health facilities in Bihar. Facility-level intrapartum and newborn scores improved by 37 and 26-percentage points, respectively, from baseline to endline. Compared to the bottom one-third facilities that performed fewest NSVD simulations, the top one-third had 6 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1-12) percentage points higher intrapartum score. Similar comparison using maternal complication simulations yielded 7 (95% CI = 1-12) percentage point higher scores. The highest newborn scores were observed in the middle one-third of facilities relative to the bottom one-third that did the fewest NSVD simulations (5, 95% CI: 1-10)., Conclusions: Findings suggest significant overall improvement in intrapartum and newborn care practices after the AMANAT nurse-mentoring program in public sector BEmONC facilities. Simulation and team-training likely contributed towards the overall improvement, especially for intrapartum care., Study Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT02726230., Competing Interests: Competing interests: Dilys Walker and Susanna Cohen are founding members of PRONTO International (a non-governmental organization) and sit on its board of directors. None of the other authors have any conflicts of interest to declare, neither there is any financial interest associated with this work. The authors completed the ICMJE Unified Competing Interest form (available upon request from the corresponding author), and declare no further conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 by the Journal of Global Health. All rights reserved.)

Background: Globally, an estimated 275,000 maternal deaths, 2.7 million neonatal deaths, and 2.6 million third trimester stillbirths occurred in 2015. Major improvements could be achieved by providing effective care in low- and middle-income countries, where the majority of these deaths occur. Mentoring programs have become a popular modality to improve knowledge and skills among providers in low-resource settings. Thus, a detailed understanding of interrelated factors affecting care provision and mentorship is necessary both to improve the quality of care and to maximize the impact of mentoring programs., Methods: In partnership with the Government of Bihar, CARE India and PRONTO International implemented simulation-enhanced mentoring in 320 primary health clinics (PHC) across the state of Bihar, India from 2015 to 2017, within the context of the AMANAT mobile nurse mentoring program. Between June and August 2016, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 AMANAT nurse mentors to explore barriers and facilitators to optimal care provision and to implementation of simulation-enhanced mentorship in PHCs in Bihar. Data were analyzed using the thematic content approach., Results: Mentors identified numerous factors affecting care provision and mentorship, many of which were interdependent. Such barriers included human resource shortages, nurse-nurse hierarchy, distance between labor and training rooms, cultural norms, and low skill level and resistance to change among mentees. In contrast, physical resource shortages, doctor-nurse hierarchy, corruption, and violence against providers posed barriers to care provision alone. Facilitators included improved skills and confidence among providers, inclusion of doctors in training, increased training frequency, establishment of strong mentor-mentee relationships, administrative support, and nursing supervision and feedback., Conclusions: This study has identified many interrelated factors affecting care provision and mentorship in Bihar. The mentoring program was not designed to address several barriers, including resource shortages, facility infrastructure, corruption, and cultural norms. These require government support, community awareness, and other systemic changes. Programs may be adapted to address some barriers beyond knowledge and skill deficiencies, notably hierarchy, violence against providers, and certain cultural taboos. An in-depth understanding of barriers and facilitators is essential to enable the design of targeted interventions to improve maternal and neonatal survival in Bihar and related contexts.

Background: In India, the neonatal mortality rate is nearly double the Sustainable Development Goal target with more than half of neonatal deaths occurring in only four states, one of which is Bihar. Evaluations of immediate neonatal care and neonatal resuscitation skills in Bihar have demonstrated a need for significant improvement. However, barriers to evidence based practices in clinical care remain incompletely characterized., Methods: To better understand such barriers, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 nurses who participated as mentors in the AMANAT maternal and child health quality improvement project, implemented by CARE India and the Government of Bihar. Nurse-mentors worked in primary health centers throughout Bihar facilitating PRONTO International emergency obstetric and neonatal simulations for nurse-mentees in addition to providing direct supervision of clinical care. Interviews focused on mentors' perceptions of barriers to evidence based practices in immediate neonatal care and neonatal resuscitation faced by mentees employed at Bihar's rural primary health centers. Data was analyzed using the thematic content approach., Results: Mentors identified numerous interacting logistical, cultural, and structural barriers to care. Logistical barriers included poor facility layout, supply issues, human resource shortages, and problems with the local referral system. Cultural barriers included norms such as male infant preference, traditional clinical practices, hierarchy in the labor room, and interpersonal relations amongst staff as well as with patients' relatives. Poverty was described as an overarching structural barrier., Conclusion: Interacting logistical, cultural and structural barriers affect all aspects of immediate neonatal care and resuscitation in Bihar. These barriers must be addressed in any intervention focused on improving providers' clinical skills. Strategic local partnerships are vital to addressing such barriers and to contextualizing skills-based trainings developed in Western contexts to achieve the desired impact of reducing neonatal mortality.