Trainee Mentoring Award
Applicants: Carolyn Ramwell, RN, MSN, CCRN (pediatric) Children’s Heart Institute, Children’s National Hospital
Cara Pleau, RN BSN
Leah Arold, RN, BSN, CPN, CCRN
Douglas Postels MD, Division of Neurology, Children’s National Hospital (mentor)
Alice Liomba, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital; Blantyre, Malawi
Lucinda Manda-Taylor, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences; Blantyre, Malawi
Project Objectives:
- Evaluate associations between demographic and clinical factors and retention after hospital follow-up for children hospitalized with cerebral malaria in Blantyre, Malawi
- Using qualitative and quantitative methods, develop a pilot educational tool to improve retention of families at highest risk of not following up post- hospitalization.
Project Summary:
Post-hospital retention of pediatric participants in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) is necessary to evaluate long-term medical and developmental follow-up of children enrolled in both observational studies and interventional clinical trials. It is unknown whether demographic or clinical factors place participants and families at higher risk of loss to follow-up; there are no validated interventions proven to improve research retention in LMICs. Our long-term goal is to increase retention of pediatric research participants post-hospitalization using a validated educational tool focused on families at highest risk. At the completion of the proposed research, we anticipate applying for extramural funding to prospectively test our validated educational instrument in an interventional clinical trial whose primary outcome will be post-hospitalization adherence to follow-up.
