DSU is Site of State’s First-Ever Maternal Transport Course

DSU was recently the site of the first-ever Maternal Transport Nurse Course offered in Delaware entitled “Safety on the Road.”

 

The April 30 course was the result of a unique collaboration of Delaware Section of the Association of Women’s Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (DE AWHONN), Delaware March of Dimes – Perinatal Cooperative, DSU Department of Nursing, Christiana Care Critical Care Transport Team Care Net, the Delaware Child Death, Near Death Still Birth Commission’s Every Mother Initiative and the Standards of Care Committee of the Delaware Healthy Mothers and Infants Consortium.

 

Carol Ann Faedtke, RN, critical care transport manager and Access Center manager for Christian Care Health System, was the course instructor. She brought the ambulance and crew that conducted the “transports” on the DSU campus.

 

Dr. Margaret-Rose Agostino, DSU assistant professor of nursing at DSU, chair of the Delaware Maternal Mortality and immediate past section chair for DE AWHONN, was the course coordinator responsible for setting up the transport simulation with two senior nursing students who served as patient models.

 

The DSU Department of Nursing’s Practice Lab was transformed into a Labor & Delivery Unit to create the simulation environment complete with fetal heart monitors needed for the care of pregnant women.

 

Ten registered nurses from Delaware area hospitals completed the pilot course.

 

The course will be offered once a month at DSU beginning in September 2014 and continue through 2015 until all designated nurses completed the training. The overall goal is to improve perinatal outcomes for women being transported via ambulance between facilities. It will also enhance the competence and confidence of nurses designated to care for pregnant women during transport via ambulance between facilities.

 

Upon completion of this course the nurses will incorporate into practice knowledge & skills to safely transport a pregnant patient via ground transportation. The course has been awarded 3.5 Contact Hours by the DSU Department of Nursing, an approved provider of Nursing Continuing Education by the Delaware Board of Nursing.