Managing women with acute physiological deterioration: student midwives performance in a simulated setting

Objective: Midwives ability to manage maternal deterioration and failure to rescue are of concern with questions over knowledge, clinical skills and the implications for maternal morbidity and, mortality rates. In a simulated setting our objective was to assess student midwives ability to assess, and manage maternal deterioration using measures of knowledge, situation awareness and skill, performance. Methods: An exploratory quantitative analysis of student performance based upon performance, ratings derived from knowledge tests and observational ratings. During 2010 thirty-five student, midwives attended a simulation laboratory completing a knowledge questionnaire and two video, recorded simulated scenarios. Patient actresses wearing a birthing suit simulated deteriorating, women with post-partum and ante-partum haemorrhage (PPH and APH). Situation awareness was, measured at the end of each scenario. Applicable descriptive and inferential statistical tests were, applied to the data.