ABSTRACT
Objective To improve the early diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD), investigate the awareness, screening knowledge and screening ability of CHD among health care providers in the rural areas of Yunnan province and discover an effective way to improve the related knowledge and skills of CHD screening. Methods From 2015 September to 2017 April, we set up charity mobile schools and chose eight areas as the investigating and training sites. We designed two questionnaires, and adopted the theoretical training as the main method combined with the training of clinical skills. We investigated and trained a total of 1022 medical staff. The training content include the awareness of CHD,the knowledge and skills of CHD screening. We also evaluated the outcomes of the training. Results A total of 2044 questionnaires were collected. After training, the number of objects which would screen CHD in future increased, and the cognition of the incidence and common clinical manifestations of CHD, Eisenmanger's syndrome,cardiac auscultation, pulse oximetry and the related knowledge of CHD were also improved; 563 took the test on practical skills of CHD detection. The correct rate of auscultation, period of murmurs and characteristics of murmurs was 98.22%(553),30.55%(172) and 28.60%(161). The correct rate of murmurs in ventricular septal defect,atrial septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus was 45.47%(256), 39.79 (224) and 50.80%(286) respectively. Online training was advised by 244 trainees. Increasing investment in congenital heart disease screening was suggested by 652 trainees. Conclusions The awareness of CHD screening in grassroots medical workers of Yunnan province is insufficient. It is an effective way to establish charity mobile school and to train the grassroots medical staff with the theory and practical knowledge to improve the awareness,screening knowledge and screening skills of CHD. The next step suggests that we can improve the early diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD).