Improving Parental Understanding and Comfort to Care for Children with Spina Bifida: An Audiovisual Educational Tool

Problem/Background: Spina bifida (SB) is a neural tube defect that occurs during the first month of development of the fetus in which the spinal column does not form normally. Through informal feedback from parents of children with SB and local Spina Bifida Clinic (SBC) providers, due to the overwhelming nature of the SB prenatal visit, parents are unable to retain important education. The following question could be asked: would an audiovisual educational tool improve parental understanding and comfort to care for their child with SB? Methods: By conducting a needs assessment survey, parental input was directly incorporated into the audiovisual educational tool. The completed tool was a 24-minute video to be used in addition to the current SB prenatal educational process. The tool was then tested through a pilot program with a pre-intervention and post-intervention survey. The pilot program consisted of one parent in the prenatal education phase (has not yet had their child) and one parent in the postnatal education phase (has had their child). The pre- and post-intervention surveys were compared to determine if the educational tool was helpful in improving parental understanding and comfort to care for their child with SB. Results: The needs assessment survey yielded 12 completed responses. In the pilot program of the educational tool, there was one prenatal phase parent and one postnatal phase parent who responded to both the pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys (n=2). It was found that the audio visual educational tool did clinically retain parental understanding and improved parental comfort to care for their children in the pilot phase of the project. Conclusions: The pilot project shows promise that an audiovisual educational video would indeed be an effective tool to disseminate information to parents expecting a child with SB. By providing an additional source of information in a new audiovisual format, parental understanding was retained and parents had improved confidence to care for their child. Keywords: Spina Bifida, education of parents, supplemental education for parents, audiovisual education materials