A study of pediatric house staff's knowledge of pulse oximetry

Pulse oximetry is widely used to measure oxygen saturation in inpatient and outpatient settings. As with any medical technology, competence in interpretation and application of the data is essential for patient care. We therefore undertook a study to quantify pediatric house staff's knowledge of pulse oximetry and their ability to interpret the information.

A 16-item multiple choice questionnaire (6 demographic, 10 knowledge) was developed to assess knowledge of pulse oximetry. The questionnaire was administered to a total of 134 pediatric house staff from five medical school-affiliated residency programs in New York City.

The mean test score and standard deviation was 64.3% +/- 1.9, with a range of 10% to 100%. Regarding three questions related to the knowledge of the oxyhemoglobin deviation curve, only 17% of the the respondents answered all three questions correctly. In three questions pertaining to the accuracy of the pulse oximeter, 36% of the respondents answered all questions correctly. Forty-three percent of the house staff believed that training in the use of pulse oximetry was inadequate.

The results showed that there is marked variability in pediatric house staff's knowledge of all aspects of pulse oximetry. This could contribute to patient morbidity. We suggest that medical schools and residency programs place more emphasis on teaching the principles and applications of pulse oximetry and the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve.