Hello Jane,
We have submitted a bid to develop a national fetal monitoring education program, which will include intermittent auscultation and “assessment”. I will let you, and anyone else is interested, know the outcome of our work in this regard.
I do admit to struggling with the whole issue of competency assessment of clinical skills. Like many on this list, I have been involved in competency assessment of CTG, perineal repair, phlebotomy, cannulation, emergencies etc. indeed, with the latter, we know there are education programs around emergency care some of which have competency assessment while others deliberately avoid going down this route. What I struggle with is understanding what is informing decisions around what should be assessed and how this assessment might be conducted. It seems that assessment is largely orientated around clinical skills that are relatively determinate and measurable while other important aspects of care including kindness and compassion don’t get the same attention when it comes to competency.
This matters I think because it also reflected in resource allocation. In my clinical role, I have found it relatively easy to mount an argument in favour of resources for things like emergency care and CTG interpretation. It’s much harder, but no less important, to do this around issues such as sitting on your hands, decision-making and VBAC and keeping birth normal.
A long winded answer…
Le gach dea-mhéin
Declan
Professor Declan Devane
Professor of Midwifery, NUI Galway
Professor of Midwifery, Saolta University Health Care Group
Director, Health Research Board – Trial Methodology Research Network (HRB-TMRN)
Tel: +353 91 495 828
Fax: +353 91 494 537
Email: [log in to unmask]
Personal profile: http://www.nuigalway.ie/our-research/people/nursing-and-midwifery/declandevane/
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