Interdisciplinary Team on Evidence-Based Practice and Improving Nurse Confidence in Labor Support

Background: The Interprofessional Evidence-based Clinical Scholar Program (IECSP) is a partnership between St. Catherine University and various clinical sites. Each partnership tasks interprofessional teams to define a clinical problem, appraise evidence for their project, implement a clinical change, evaluate effectiveness of the intervention, and disseminate the practice change. For the 2018-2019 cycle, a team of two St. Catherine University nursing students and faculty from nutrition and interprofessional education partnered with Abbott Northwestern (ANW) nursing staff from the labor and delivery unit of the Mother Baby Center. Using the Plan Do Study Act rapid-cycle improvement method, the goal of this team is to identify and implement a strategy to increase nursing confidence in providing non-pharmacological support methods to laboring mothers.

Methods: To date, the team has systematically appraised relevant peer-reviewed literature on the experience of laboring mothers and supportive healthcare providers. The team identified two different labor support algorithms which were presented to ANW nursing staff as possible tools to implement on the labor and delivery unit.

Results: The Coping Assessment for Laboring Mothers (CALM) Scale, a validated tool for nurses to more effectively assess pain of laboring mothers and provide suggestions for holistic nursing care, was determined by ANW nursing staff as an appropriate tool for implementation that would best meet the needs of the unit. The CALM scale will be tested for feasibility with a small group of 3-4 nurses and adjustments will be made as necessary before implementation is unit-wide. Nursing confidence in providing non-pharmacologic support methods will be assessed using the Self-Efficacy Labor Support Scale, pre- and post-implementation.

Conclusion: Thus far, students have learned the importance of interprofessional communication and healthy team dynamics, and gained experience in evidence-based quality improvement practices in a real-world situation.

Implications: Through the IECSP, the current and future generations of health providers learn to work effectively in collaborative team environments through interprofessional experiences gained outside a traditional classroom setting. Should the CALM scale be shown to be effective for increasing nursing confidence in providing non-pharmacological support methods, it will be implemented in a unit-wide practice change.