The effect of staff development on community health : a case study related to breastfeeding patterns in Malta

Abstract

Human resource development is concerned with organisational renewal and growth through processes which involve the organisation members and which the same members manage. Thus, the purpose of HRD, is to bring about change in the individual which will benefit the organisation. The purpose of this study was to assess whether, following a training intervention, there will be improvement in the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the employees and if the expected improvement would bring about an increase in breastfeeding rates. A sustained improvement in breastfeeding rates is considered very important as, in the long term, it will have a positive effect on community health. This study concluded that there was a statistically significant improvement in the knowledge and attitude scores of trainees. Skills were not assessed. Although there was an improvement in the breastfeeding rates, this was statistically significant only at one month.