Evaluation Study of a Web-Based Virtual Preceptorship for Moderate Sedation Training

Safe Sedation Training® (SST®), is an interactive, web-based module related to moderate sedation. SST® can be utilized to standardize moderate sedation training in a given healthcare organization. However, SST has not been formally evaluated or tested in a broad spectrum of healthcare workers or nurses. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to test SST ® in a sample of novice nurses who are naïve to moderate sedation with the objective of evaluating knowledge outcomes, user module evaluation outcomes, and performance outcome and lastly disseminating project results through a poster conference. Moderate sedation is the most common form of sedation provided by non-anesthesiologist clinicians for the purpose of decreasing patients' anxiety, discomfort, and pain while increasing procedure success. Center for Medicaid and Medicare demands that hospital anesthesia services maintain clear sedation policies and procedures that delineate minimum qualification and supervision requirements for practitioners including nurses permitted to provide moderate sedation. Per American Society of Anesthesiologist © nurses who are credentialed for moderate sedation at least should be trained in role and responsibilities of nurse, pre-procedural evaluation, monitoring physiological parameters, oxygen supplementation, pharmacologic agents and rescue maneuvers. There is no research evaluating the relationship of moderate sedation training and patient outcomes, however a recent international survey of clinicians in electrophysiology labs, demonstrated inadequate training related to moderate sedation. Furthermore, health care institutions are challenged with providing engaging, relevant, cost-effective education and training. Although web-based learning (WBL) in health care doesn't necessarily lead superior outcomes compared to other traditional methods, it provides flexible, cost-effective and individual learning opportunities. To accomplish objectives, a prospective pre-test and post-test study designed. Upon Institutional Review Board approval, seven nurses with 0-2 years of work experience without previous moderate sedation training was recruited to take pre-training test/post-training test and course satisfaction surveys. Simulation component of the study was not completed at time due to logistic difficulties, but is planned to be completed within the next 2 months. Comparison of pre-training and post-training test scores by paired t-tests demonstrated significant increase in knowledge after the SST® training. Majority of the nurses rated the content, design, learning objectives, usability, and interactivity of the module as "good" or "excellent" although potential area of improvement related to level of interactivity and amount and quality of feedback were identified. The results of this project was submitted to the University Hospital Evidence-Based Practice Council Poster Fair