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Letter
Attittudes of staff members towards video recording in the delivery room
  1. Madeleine C Murphy1,2,3,
  2. Colm P F O’Donnell1,2,3,
  3. Lisa K McCarthy1
  1. 1 Department of Neonatology, National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
  2. 2 National Children’s Research Centre, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland
  3. 3 School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
  1. Correspondence to Dr Lisa K McCarthy, Department of Neonatology, National Maternity Hospital, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin D02 YH21, Ireland; lmccarthy{at}nmh.ie

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The first reported use of video recording in the delivery room (DR) was part of a quality assurance project at the University of California San Diego Medical Center that evaluated performance at neonatal resuscitation.1 Video recording has since been used to appraise many aspects of DR care.2 3 Although we have reported that video recording is in general widely accepted by staff attending deliveries and provides opportunities for self-evaluation,4 the attitudes of staff to video recording in the DR have not been studied.

Video recording of high-risk infants in the DR was previously performed at our hospital and has recently been re-introduced. We created an anonymous questionnaire to examine the attitudes of staff towards the use of video recording in the DR using a 5-point Likert scale. We surveyed 25 staff members with a 100% response rate; 19 (76%) respondents were female and 6 (24%) were male. Ten (40%) respondents were nurses and 15 (60%) were doctors (2 consultants (8%), 8 registrars 8 (32%), 5 senior house officers (20%)). Most (80%) had previous experience of video recording at our hospital.

Respondents were asked in a free-text box which words best described their attitude towards the use of video recording; the majority had positive connotations. Respondents frequently described their attitudes towards the use of video recording as ‘positive’ and ‘open’, and referred to it as an innovative approach towards teaching and research. Most respondents (96%) agreed that video recording in the DR was important, for both teaching and research (figure 1). Most (96%) reported feeling comfortable, or impartial, with the use of video; only one respondent reported feeling ‘moderately uncomfortable’. Similarly, most respondents reported that it provided an opportunity for self-evaluation. Less than half (44%) were apprehensive about criticism or reported feeling vulnerable (48%). The majority (60%) were not concerned about a potential for recordings to be used for medico-legal purposes. A larger proportion of doctors than nurses reported feeling apprehensive about criticism (8 (53%) vs. 3 (30%)) and vulnerable (8 (53%) vs. 4 (40%)), respectively. A greater proportion of females than males reported feeling apprehensive about criticism (9 (47%) vs. 2 (33.3%)) and concerned about the potential for recordings to be used for medico-legal purposes (7 (37%) vs. 1 (17%)). When asked which aspects of the recordings they wished to include in teaching sessions, respondents suggested reviewing specific scenarios, the timeline of interventions and ventilation during resuscitation. Other suggested topics included management of preterm infants and leadership.

Figure 1

Stacked bar chart displaying attitudes of staff members towards video recording in the delivery room (DR).

Although this survey is small, we feel the responses reflect the attitudes of staff towards the use of video in the DR. We plan to use video recording to implement a neonatal resuscitation teaching programme that addresses the specific needs and wishes of caregivers at our hospital. Awareness of caregivers’ attitudes will help us to support staff attending the DR and encourage self-evaluation in an open forum. Through the use of video recording we aim to improve the care of newborns in the DR.

References

Footnotes

  • Contributors All authors were involved in study conception and design. MCM: data interpretation and drafting of manuscript; CPFO’D and LKMcC: revision of letter for submission.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.