A Study to Assess the Utility of a New Proforma in Simulated Clinical Scenarios of Maternal Cardiac Arrest

The use of standardised proformas can improve the quality and completeness of data collection in healthcare settings. In a previous study we have found that medical records examined by the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths (CEMD) 2009-2012 were variable in their quality, often poor and in need of improvement. In view of this, we have developed a proforma to assist the quality of record-keeping during maternal cardiac arrest, using a modified Delphi process amongst a multidisciplinary group of CEMD assessors. The present application is for a study evaluating clinicians' views of this proforma and its usefulness in a simulator setting (as maternal cardiac arrest is so rare, evaluation in actual cases would be a very lengthy and expensive venture; such a study would have to be multicentre and would require a preliminary evaluation such as the one being proposed here, anyway).

One hundred participants will take part in the study during the routine Multidisciplinary Obstetric and Midwifery Simulation (MOMS) training course at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. During the course, groups of delegates manage simulated clinical emergencies, whilst the remaining delegates observe the scenario via a video link. A brief information sheet and explanation will be provided before consent is sought to take part in the study.

During the cardiac arrest scenario, the delegates observing will be asked to refer to the proforma and record those details of events that they are able to see/hear from the video link. In addition, the proforma will be provided to the team taking part in the simulation. One or more team members would routinely be given the role of 'scribe', recording events as they occur. Delegates (observers plus scribes) will then be asked to complete a questionnaire seeking their opinions on the usefulness of the proforma. All of the data will be collected pseudo-anonymously.