Course Description:
This 2-day workshop earns 18 contact hours and 15.25 CMEs. Offered in a standardized format, the course may be used as a competency assessment to validate the knowledge and skills of experienced nurses. Participants analyze case scenarios using key physiologic principles. Sessions offer demonstration, practice and testing of the following skills:
- Auscultation
- Performing Leopold’s Maneuvers
- Placement of an intrauterine pressure catheter and spiral electrode
- Interpretation of tracings
- Identification of indicated nursing interventions
- Communication
- Documentation
Expected Level of Learner:
This course is designed for registered nurses with a minimum of 6 months clinical nursing experience using fetal heart monitoring technology in an intrapartum setting. Participants are expected to already possess basic knowledge and related skills in the following areas:
- Maternal physiologic changes of pregnancy
- Fetal growth and development
- Methods of fetal monitoring
- Preparation of patient for set-up and initiation of external or internal fetal monitoring
- Obtaining and maintaining tracings that document fetal heart rate and uterine contractions
- Interpretation of uterine contraction frequency, duration, and baseline resting tone
- Identification of the baseline fetal heart rate, variability and deviations
- Indicated clinical interventions
- Communication and documentation standards
At the conclusion of this workshop, participants should be able to:
- Demonstrate the decision-making process necessary for the proper selection and verification of fetal heart monitoring techniques.
- Analyze fetal heart rate patterns and their implications for fetal well-being.
- Correlate indicated clinical interventions with related maternal-fetal physiology.
- Describe the role and responsibility of the professional nurse in the use of FHM in intrapartum care.
- Simulate the psychomotor skills used in FHM.
- Communicate verbal and written data to verify accountability.