The Delivery Room Communication Checklist

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Effective communication between obstetric and pediatric providers in the delivery room is crucial to providing safe patient care to women and their newborn infants. The use of checklists can be a simple and effective method to standardize handoff communication between obstetric and pediatric teams during deliveries. Methods We present the Delivery Room Communication Checklist, a resource that consists of 23 vital communication items that should be exchanged between medical providers, nursing providers, and family members during infant deliveries. The checklist may be implemented in institutions as a educational tool, a visual aid during patient care, and an assessment tool. When used as an educational tool, learners receive a copy of the checklist for review prior to the training sessions, so that they may better utilize their time participating in the simulated delivery room scenario by practicing and demonstrating communication of the checklist items. When used as a visual aid during patient care, obstetric nurses may use parts of the checklist as a visual recall tool when communicating with pediatric providers during deliveries. Further, to enhance communication recall between teams, copies of the checklist may be posted close to infant warmers. Finally, the checklist may be used as an assessment tool to help educators and quality improvement specialists identify areas for improvement in delivery room communication. Assessments may be performed either by directly observing team communication during simulated or actual deliveries, or by reviewing videos of team communication. Results The checklist has been validated (following the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Using the checklist, we have demonstrated improvement in team communication during simulated deliveries over a 3-year assessment period, as well as during high-risk deliveries. Discussion The Delivery Room Communication Checklist is an effective tool for standardizing handoff communication between obstetric and pediatric teams during deliveries.

Keywords

• Communication
• Neonatology
• Assessment
• Checklist
• Interprofessional Relations
• Interdisciplinary Communication