ABSTRACT #38

EVALUATION OF TELE-SIMULATION AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL IN NEONATAL RESUSCITATION COURSES FOR MIDWIVES IN PERU

Mehrin Islam, Rachel Whitney, Czer A. Lim

PURPOSE AND GOALS: Conduct a pilot study to evaluate the feasibility of incorporating live, interactive telesimulation cases to an existing online module-based neonatal resuscitation course and evaluate midwives’ knowledge and attitudes related to neonatal resuscitation.

METHODS: Beginning in July 2022, midwife students from Peruvian College of Midwives were offered a new neonatal resuscitation curriculum. Participants completed an existing online module-based training followed by four telesimulation cases that demonstrated the main actions taken during successful neonatal resuscitation. The telesimulation cases were first conducted through real-time Zoom sessions led by USbased certified neonatal resuscitation instructors to three midwife trainers, who then went on to conduct sessions of 3-4 learners each. Each case involved a pre-brief, a demonstration, case scenarios with alternating roles, live feedback, and debrief. Learner- based outcome measures included scores on a validated knowledge assessment of NRP principles, surveys of self- efficacy with NRP practice, and evaluation of course components. Knowledge and self-efficacy measures were collected prior to and immediately after course completion via Redcap™.

EVALUATION PLAN: Analysis will be conducted using repeated-measures ANOVA to compare pre and post-simulation scores per learner, and again against a control group from the previous learning group that used only the online learning course without telesimulation. Monthly meetings were conducted with the trainers regarding the progress of the course and challenges faced.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS: To date, six learners have completed the course and surveys. There have been significant barriers to completing the study, which is ongoing. Using a two-tailed alpha level of 0.05 and 80% power, 16 participants will need to be included to detect a 20% difference in scores.

REFLECTIVE CRITIQUE: We anticipate that the addition of tele-simulation with debriefing will be associated with increased performance on a validated knowledge assessment of NRP principles and in learners’ reported self-efficacy. However, there are several barriers to the execution of tele-simulation as an education intervention in resource-poor settings.

More studies are needed to examine overcoming these barriers.