Impact of introducing practical obstetric multi-professional training (PROMPT) into maternity units in Victoria,...

To assess the introduction of Practical Obstetric Multi-professional Training (PROMPT) into maternity units and evaluate effects on organisational culture and perinatal outcomes.

A retrospective cohort study.

Maternity units in eight public hospitals in metropolitan and regional Victoria, Australia.

Staff in eight maternity units and a total of 43,408 babies born between July 2008 and December 2011.

Representatives from eight Victorian hospitals underwent a single day of training (Train the Trainer), to conduct PROMPT. Organisational culture was compared before and after PROMPT. Clinical outcomes were evaluated before, during and after PROMPT.

The number of courses run and the proportion of staff trained were determined. Organisational culture was measured using the Safety Attitude Questionnaire. Clinical measures included Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes (Apgar 1 and Apgar 5), cord lactate, blood loss and length of baby's stay in hospital.

Seven of the eight hospitals conducted PROMPT. Overall about 50% of staff were trained in each year of the study. Significant increases were found in Safety Attitude Questionnaire scores representing domains of teamwork (Hedges' g 0.27, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.13-0.41), safety (Hedges' g 0.28, 95% CI 0.15-0.42) and perception of management (Hedges' g 0.17, 95% CI 0.04-0.31). There were significant improvements in Apgar 1 (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.77-0.91), cord lactates (odds ratio 0.92, 95% CI 0.85-0.99) and average length of baby's stay in hospital (Hedges' g 0.03, 95% CI 0.01-0.05) during or after training, but no change in Apgar 5 scores or proportion of cases with high blood loss.

PROMPT can be introduced using the Train the Trainer model. Improvements in organisational culture and some clinical measures were observed following PROMPT.