Outcomes of teaching baccalaureate nursing students about mastitis utilizing a multimodal teaching tool.

Annually, 10-33% of U.S. lactating women develop mastitis. Often underreported, mastitis has acute and chronic sequelae with rare documented cases of invasive breast surgery due to pervasive infection. Evidenced-based prevention, early recognition, and treatment of mastitis are not emphasized in the undergraduate nursing profession textbooks or academic settings. Using current evidence-based research on postpartum mastitis, and concepts of maximizing cognition, this pre and post test study examines the knowledge acquired and retained utilizing traditional teaching methods compared to a multimodal teaching video on mastitis with a baccalaureate nursing student population. A significant difference in knowledge acquisition was noted between pre and post tests results. Furthermore, using Benner's novice to expert criteria, baccalaureate student nurses improved their ability to articulate lay and professional descriptions of and treatment for mastitis. These results emphasize the significance of lactation curricula in undergraduate nursing programs and the importance of utilizing multimodal delivery methods.