Background Neonatal mortality in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world. Education packages targeted at health workers and focused on providing knowledge and skills around the essential components of newborn care have been shown to reduce neonatal death. This study designed and evaluated the impact of an educational intervention on neonatal care and survival in Jos University teaching hospital, Jos, Nigeria. This presentation reports on phase one of the study which focused on satisfaction with training and knowledge acquired.

Methods Underpinned by Kirkpatrick's framework for evaluating the effectiveness of a training program, a pre and post study design was used to determine the impact of an educational intervention design to meet the training needs of health workers involved with neonatal care. The 38 participants completed a knowledge test questionnaire prior to training and immediately after training. A survey was conducted to determine participants' satisfaction with training. Data was analysed using SPSS version 22.

Results Participants were generally satisfied with training and the mean post training score for knowledge (21.42 ± 1.08) was higher that the pre training score (17.95 ± 3.08) and represents 13.35% increase in general performance. The correlation of performance before and after training is positive and statistically significant (0.427; p = 0.008).

Conclusions A positive reaction to training and measurable improvement in knowledge are important indicators of practice change and represents Kirkpatrick's levels one and two evaluation. The next phase of this study will examine how participants were able to integrate what they learnt into their daily practice.