Date of Award

2024

Degree Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice

Committee Chair

Dr. Michong Rayborn

Committee Chair School

Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice

Committee Member 2

Dr. Nina McLain

Committee Member 2 School

Leadership and Advanced Nursing Practice

Abstract

The use of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) in anesthetic practice is an invaluable tool for anesthesia providers to implement into their daily practice. One of these regional techniques is the erector spinae plane block (ESPB) which has anesthetic implications in numerous surgical procedures including cervical spine, thoracolumbar spine, thoracic wall, and chest wall procedures. Because of the novelty of this regional anesthetic technique, it is important to educate first-year anesthesia providers about the implications, skillset, and complications of the ESPB.

To bridge the gap between didactic knowledge and clinical practice in first-year anesthesia providers, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was created to formulate a standardized evaluation tool that educates and instills confidence into the providers in a simulated clinical scenario before they enter clinical practice. The OSCE will better educate anesthesia providers in the knowledge and skills to perform the ESPB so that they may implement the ESPB into daily anesthetic practice. Doing so will lead to an improved delivery of perioperative analgesia and reduce opioid use/misuse in a variety of patient populations.

To evaluate the DNP project, a mixed methods qualitative-quantitative randomized controlled trial (RCT) was performed. A sample size of ten first-year anesthesia providers in The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Nurse Anesthesia Program (NAP) voluntarily consented to participate in this study. The participants were randomly assigned to either a traditional or OSCE learning group, each containing five members.

A two-tailed sample t-test was applied to analyze the data collected from the simulation scenario where the participants performed the ESPB using ultrasound-guidance. Afterward, each one answered a short survey that included both qualitative and quantitative questions to evaluate the experience. Even though the data suggested there was no significant difference between the two groups, the OSCE group demonstrated increased confidence in performing the ESPB, the ability to identify landmarks, and satisfaction with the learning materials. Based on these results, the importance of this DNP project was validated and demonstrated that the first-year anesthesia providers were capable and confident in implementing the ESPB into clinical practice.

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