Improving Interprofessional Consistency in Electronic Fetal Heart Rate Interpretation.

Objective To determine if mandatory online training in electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) improved agreement in documentation between obstetric care providers and nurses on labor and delivery. Methods Health care professionals working in obstetrics at our institution were required to complete a course on EFM interpretation. We performed a retrospective chart review of 701 charts including patients delivered before and after the introduction of the course to evaluate agreement among providers in their documentation of their interpretations of the EFM tracings. Results Agreement between provider and nurse documentation at the time of admission improved for variability and accelerations (variability: 91.1 vs. 98.3%, p < 0.001; and accelerations: 75.2 vs. 87.7%, p < 0.001). Similarly, agreement improved at the time of the last note prior to delivery for documentation of variability and accelerations (variability: 82.1 vs. 90.6%, p = 0.001; and accelerations: 56.7 vs. 68.6%, p = 0.0012). Agreement in interpretation of decelerations both at the time of admission and at the time of delivery increased (86.3 vs. 90.6%, p = 0.0787, and 56.7 vs. 61.1%, p = 0.2314, respectively) but was not significant. Conclusion An online EFM course can significantly improve consistency in multidisciplinary documentation of fetal heart rate tracing interpretation.

The effect of protease inhibitors on the cervical mucus of HIV-positive women taking norethindrone contraception.

OBJECTIVE: To compare cervical mucus score (CMS) with and without protease inhibitors (PI) before and after taking norethindrone (NET). STUDY DESIGN: This two-arm, researcher blinded, non-randomised, prospective study was conducted to evaluate cervical mucus quality in HIV-positive women taking progestin only pills. The study group was taking a PI, and compared to women taking ARV regimens that have demonstrated no significant interaction with NET in prior pharmacokinetic trials with combined oral contraceptives. The women had a cervical mucus score prior to NET administration. Mucus Scoring was repeated after 21 days of steady state exposure to oral NET 0.35 milligrams. Cervical mucus quality was quantified according to the World Health Organisation criteria, which include: volume, consistency, cellularity, spinnbarkeit, and ferning. RESULTS: Sixteen women took PI and 17 were controls. Baseline CMS were similar (p ≥ 0.1). After 21 days CMS were similar among the two groups (p = 1). CONCLUSIONS: HIV-positive women taking PI demonstrated thickened cervical mucus with oral norethindrone 0.35 mg and are similar to HIV-positive women taking no PI therapy. This may suggest no difference in contraceptive efficacy of progestin only pills in HIV-positive women taking PI.