ECG Monitoring During NRP: a False Sense of Security?

The aim of this study is to evaluate whether the presence of ECG monitoring has an impact on the resuscitative steps of NRP providers.

Participants will be invited to the mother-child simulation center at CHU Sainte-Justine for a 60 minute simulation session during which they will complete two neonatal resuscitation scenarios (one of pulseless VT and the other of PEA). They will be randomized to either having access or not to ECG monitoring during the resuscitations.

Investigators will plan to have participant teams perform the second scenario two weeks after the first scenario. This will be to hopefully mitigate repetition bias, as both scenarios will involve a pulseless newborn.

1. Resuscitation team and equipment Participants will be invited to be part of a three-person resuscitation team (physician or nurse practitioner, respiratory therapist and nurse) to complete the scenarios. A high-fidelity manikin will be utilized in all scenarios (Laerdal © Sim NewB). All necessary equipment as per NRP guidelines for neonatal resuscitation will be present at the bedside for the team to use.
2. Simulation scenarios In each group, the participants will be asked to proceed with the resuscitation of a newborn in the delivery room. Two different rhythms were chosen to see if changes seen with one abnormal appearing rhythm (ventricular tachycardia) can be replicated with a second normal appearing rhythm (PEA). Both of these rhythms cannot be considered normal as the newborn is pulseless.

For the VT scenario, the newborn will be born in pulseless VT, with a pulse reading of 120 on the ECG monitor. There will have been an uneventful delivery. Participants will be expected to perform defibrillation, endotracheal intubation, chest compressions, umbilical venous catheter placement and intravenous epinephrine. Once the epinephrine is administered, the manikin will have a palpable pulse of 100, which will end the scenario.