DETERMINING PROFICIENCIES IN SPINAL ANESTHESIA USING THE DELPHI TECHNIQUE (ANESTHESIA PROGRAMS, NURSE ANESTHESIA PROGRAM).
Contributors: Texas A & M University.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 236
Subjects: Education, Adult and Continuing.; Health Sciences, Education.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Anesthesia in the United States is currently administered by two groups of individuals, specially trained nurses and physicians. Current standards and guidelines developed by the respective associations established minimum requirements for individuals to successfully complete the programs.

Specialty programs in science and agricultural education established proficiencies for individuals. Individuals who achieved proficiency in an area had improved outcomes as compared to those who were performing at a minimum level of performance.

This study was initiated to determine proficiencies for individuals completing anesthesia training programs. The study further compared the differences between military and civilian medical communities.

The Delphi Technique was the research method used to identify the proficiencies. Two panels of ten experts were nominated by 250 peers to represent anesthesia practitioners in the military and civilian medical communities.

In round one, each panel member was asked to list the proficiencies that a resident was required to demonstrate to be permitted to perform a spinal anesthetic with limited supervision. The definitions of proficiency and limited supervision as pertained to the study were included with the research question.

The items returned to the researcher in round one were compiled, categorized, summarized, and returned to the panel members in round two for review and prioritization. After the prioritized items and categories were returned for analysis, each item and category was assigned a value in a range of one to seventeen based on the priority assigned.

The mean and median were calculated for each item. The median of each item in one panel's responses was compared with the median of a similar item from the other panel using the Mann-Whitney Procedure (Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxian Test). This was accomplished to determine if the prioritizations from the panel members were different.

Both panels identified eight principal proficiencies that were required to fulfill the requirements of the study. The resident had to demonstrate proficiency to the instructor in the area of knowledge, resuscitation, communications, patient selection, preparation, conducting the spinal anesthetic, management of difficulties, and monitoring. The completed list of proficiencies was returned to each panel member in round three for consensus.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-05, Section: A, page: 1476.

Thesis (PH.D.)--TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY, 1990.

School code: 0803.