Clinical trial NCT04040257: A Team-based Approach to Improve Knowledge and Judgment Performance in Electronic Fetal Monitoring
Official title: Does a Team-based Approach Improve Knowledge and Judgment Performance in Electronic Fetal Monitoring?
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Electronic Fetal Monitoring
Lead sponsor: Yale University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2019-07-31
Enrollment: 92
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: The primary objective of this study is to compare performance of nurses, midwives, and physicians working as individuals versus working as teams in electronic fetal monitoring (as assessed by differences in knowledge and judgment scores).

Detailed description: Electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) has been used as a tool to evaluate fetal wellbeing in obstetrics for decades, with limited results with regard to improve fetal outcomes. There remains wide variation in the interpretation of fetal heart rate (FHR) tracings between different practitioners, which may explain the limited impact of this ubiquitous tool. The Perinatal Quality Foundation Fetal Monitoring Credentialing (PQF/FMC) exam was established to improve patient safety in obstetrical care by optimizing and standardizing the credentialing process for EFM.

The Fetal Monitoring Credentialing (FMC) test is a validated tool to assess the knowledge and judgment of test-takers based on script concordance theory, an approach to testing that allows assessment on real-life situations by comparing to the clinical reasoning of a panel of reference experts.

It is known that in clinical practice patients are cared for by teams of individuals (RN's, CNM, resident physicians and attendings). These individuals are all trained to approach a laboring patient from their own unique training. Even amongst experts in the field there is only moderate agreement on the interpretation of tracings with poor agreement on what constitutes a category III tracing. The absence of complete agreement in clinical practice creates differences in opinions of interpretation and agreement regarding next step in management for obstetric patients.

It is hypothesized that a team-based participation in the Perinatal Quality Foundation Fetal Monitoring Credentialing (PQF/FMC) exam will improve knowledge and judgment scores.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Must be a registered nurse, certified midwife, physician (resident, attending, MFM and General OB/Gyn) and have full obstetric privileges to provide patient care at participating hospitals.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Any individual who does not meet inclusion criteria or is unable to participate in all exams at the designated time points.

Primary outcomes:
measure: The Perinatal Quality Foundation Fetal Monitoring Credentialing (PQF/FMC) Judgement
timeFrame: Up to 6 months
measure: The Perinatal Quality Foundation Fetal Monitoring Credentialing (PQF/FMC) Knowledge
timeFrame: Up to 6 months
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: New Haven
country: United States
facility: Yale-New Haven Hospital
state: Connecticut
Study officials:
affiliation: Yale School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences
name: Krista Mehlhaff, DO
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: