What is it?
The FSEP teaching and assessment tool 2 provides antenatal only clinical cases. This tool is specifically designed to be purchased and used by midwifery unit managers and clinical educators only. Please contact the FSEP office if you have any queries about this.
This tool is primarily designed as a teaching tool but may also be used to assess the interpretive/management skills of those clinicians whose score on the FSEP assessment is "borderline", relative to their practitioner level (fsep.edu.au).
The FSEP assessment is a valid and relaible assessment of a clinician's knowledge and associated cognitive skills in specific area of fetal surveillance/CTGs. It is not an assessment of competency. Competency can only be assessed in a clinical setting. It is important to recognise that just because a clinician scores poorly on the FSEP assessment does not mean they are inherently unsafe; anymore than an individual who scores well on test is automatically a safe practitioner. Some clinicians may simply be poor at tests/MCQ assessments.
Why use it?
It is hoped that this tool, taken into account with the expected practitioner level and the individual Graphical Item Map (GIM), may be utilised to help differentiate between the clinician whose score is unsatisfactory because their knowledge is unsatisfactory,- and the clinician whose knowledge and/or management skills are acceptable but their 'test' skills are poor.
How to use it?
The educator should present the clinican with a CTG and associated clinical picture and ask for their interpretation and management. This may include guiding them through the CTG, asking for the baseline fetal heart rate, an assessment of the baseline variability (and what that represents), accelerations and decelarations. There should then be discussion regarding the potential causes of any abnormality and likely management based on fetal well-being (as apparent in the CTG) and the overall clinical picture. Our trace description, interpretation, management and outcome can then be 'flipped up' from the back of the document for discussion.