Failure of a brief educational program to improve interpretation of pulmonary artery occlusion pressure tracings

Objective: To determine whether a brief educational program can reduce vari ability of interpretation of pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP) tra cings. Design: Prospective, observational study. Participants: Twenty-three intensive care nurses and 18 physicians. Interventions. Participants interpreted PAOP tracings before and 1 week aft er receiving a single, brief educational session and/or written materials ( "in-service") designed to reduce interobserver variability of PAOP interpre tation. Differences between two reference values before and after in-servic e (mean population and Chief of Critical Care's readings) were compared for both groups. Results: There were no significant differences in the variabilities in PAOP interpretations before and after in-service in either group. Conclusions: We conclude that this specific educational program was ineffec tive in reducing variability of interpretation of PAOP tracings. These data suggest that more comprehensive educational tools and/or sustained program s may be required to improve performance of critical care personnel in PAOP interpretation.