Educating Public Health Nurses Across NC with Basic Fetal Monitoring Course

Northwest AHEC offered a workshop on April 13, 2022:  “Basic Fetal Monitoring for North Carolina Health Departments,” with Mona Brown Ketner MSN, RN, C-EFM serving as the faculty member. This activity, which was the second workshop of its type, educated 50 public health nurses from across NC Health Departments. The programs reached 21 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.

The target audience was nurses who serve in NC health department obstetric areas, and the live webinar was limited to 50 to allow opportunity for question & answer as needed.  Many nurses who attended were brand-new to fetal monitoring, and others had 30 years of experience and were using the day as a refresher.

It is important for nurses to be able to interpret fetal monitoring strips accurately and provide patient/family education about findings.  It can also be critical for a nurse to be knowledgeable about fetal monitoring in the event that a concerning finding is seen on a fetal monitoring strip and a referral is needed.  As always, the goal is to help provide the best possible care and have a good outcome for mother and baby.

This was the second workshop of this type offered specifically to health department staff members across the state; the first “Basic Fetal Monitoring for NC Health Departments” was held in June of 2021. This workshop offers credit of 5.0 Contact Hours from Northwest AHEC,  5.0 Nursing Contact Hours - Northwest Area Health Education Center (NWAHEC) is approved as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the North Carolina Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Basic Fetal Monitoring for NC Health Department Objectives
Upon completion of this program, participants are able to:

• State factors contributing to fetal stress in labor.
• Describe advantages/disadvantages of EFM instrumentation.
• Identify acceleration and deceleration patterns.
• Explore interventions needed for Category I, II and III EFM strips.
• Identify uterine patterns.
• Interpret antepartal testing results.