Benefits of Outreach Education
Education and training activities provide an opportunity to discuss issues associated with transport and expand the knowledge base of referring hospital personnel when stabilizing the condition of a neonatal or pediatric patient for transport.
Many times, referring hospital personnel are anxious to learn more about the disease process and current management, as well as how they can better care for the patient until the transport team arrives. This is also a good opportunity for a team to develop important relationships and learn about its customers, their needs, and the transport team's performance and perception in the community. Delivering a well-developed case study with highlighted topics and care interventions of representative infants or children transported (or not) from a referring hospital provides an open forum for multidisciplinary discussion and possible improvements of care while strengthening community ties. Instructors must be trained, however, to avoid alienating the audience with perceived or real criticisms of care and personnel and to be able to solicit and graciously accept constructive criticism of their transport service. The outreach educator should always emphasize what was done well by the referring hospital and its staff.Outreach education also benefits transport team members by refreshing their own knowledge base when preparing educational offerings. They may develop a better understanding of what referring facilities face when presented with a critically ill patient (few referring facilities will have the pediatric subspecialists and equipment immediately available that may be considered routine and necessary at the transport team's base facility). Increasing regional awareness of the transport team, its capabilities, and how to access the service will further enable overall program success. Most important, pretransport patient care may be improved, as may the overall patient outcomes.