A Multimethod Improvement Project to Strengthen Intermittent Auscultation Practice Among Nurse-Midwives and Nurses

Intermittent auscultation (IA) is an accepted standard of care for intrapartum fetal assessment for low-risk individuals and is the exclusive method used to monitor fetal status in birth centers. However, there are conflicting national guidelines for practice and skill training. As a result, IA technique and skills vary across the perinatal care workforce, with many health care providers receiving no or minimal formal training. This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a quality improvement program aimed at strengthening the IA skills of nurse-midwives and nurses.

The project was implemented in a multisite network of freestanding birth centers and involved clinical practice guideline development, simulation-based training, audit and feedback, in-person training, and electronic health record configuration.

The training resulted in self-reported increases in knowledge in all areas assessed. The integrated quality improvement initiative resulted in substantial improvements in consistency of practice and documentation.

Policy change was not sufficient to improve use of IA, a nuanced skill that many midwives and nurses have limited exposure to in basic education programs and hospital-based clinical practice. Clinical improvement was possible when the policy change was accompanied by a comprehensive training and implementation strategy including interactive, simulation-based learning, audit and feedback, and an electronic health record configuration that better reflected the documentation standards.