Failure of a brief educational program to improve interpretation of pulmonary artery occlusion pressure tracings

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Intensive care medicine

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a brief educational program can reduce variability of interpretation of pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP) tracings. DESIGN: Prospective, observational study. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-three intensive care nurses and 18 physicians. INTERVENTIONS: Participants interpreted PAOP tracings before and 1 week after receiving a single, brief educational session and/or written materials ("in-service") designed to reduce interobserver variability of PAOP interpretation. Differences between two reference values before and after in-service (mean population and Chief of Critical Care's readings) were compared for both groups. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the variabilities in PAOP interpretations before and after in-service in either group. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that this specific educational program was ineffective in reducing variability of interpretation of PAOP tracings. These data suggest that more comprehensive educational tools and/or sustained programs may be required to improve performance of critical care personnel in PAOP interpretation.

First Page

698

Last Page

703

DOI

10.1007/s001340051235

Publication Date

6-1-2000

Identifier

10945386 (pubmed); 10.1007/s001340051235 (doi)

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