Obstetric multidisciplinary team high spinal simulation

Background: High spinal is a rare, yet potentially life-threatening, complication of obstetric (OB) anesthesia that is defined as a blockade of spinal nerves above T4. Providers often feel inadequate to respond to emergencies they rarely or never experience. Multidisciplinary OB simulation-based training (SBT) has been shown to improve knowledge, confidence, and team performance during emergencies. Methods: Twenty-three OB multidisciplinary team participants at a hospital in the Southeastern United States were included in this pre-post interventional design. Participants completed surveys assessing knowledge and confidence, participated in a baseline simulation, and engaged in an educational session focused on high spinal recognition and management. Participants then repeated the simulation and completed debriefing and a posteducation survey. Results: Pre- to post-education, knowledge assessment scores increased from 84.8% to 88.6% (p = .446); confidence in high spinal management improved significantly (p = .002), and percentage of completed team tasks improved from 59.9% to 81.0% (p = .001). Conclusion: This project demonstrated SBT can potentially improve knowledge, confidence, and task completion in multidisciplinary team management of a high spinal.

Duke Scholars

Author Virginia Chris Simmons School of Nursing