RANZCOG’s Fetal Surveillance Education Program Achieves Record Numbers
RANZCOG
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
The Â鶹ֱ²¥Fetal Surveillance Education Program (FSEP) commenced in 2003, following the development of the first Â鶹ֱ²¥Intrapartum Fetal Surveillance Guideline in 2001. This was supported by the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA), the public hospital insurers in Victoria. Following a successful pilot project in 2004, FSEP has grown and evolved significantly and today has 13 talented and passionate lecturers presenting across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, supported by an equally passionate administration team here at Djeembana.
This year, the FSEP team will present a record 400 lectures across the Asia Pacific, to around 9,000 clinicians. With more than 300 lectures already booked for 2025, that may be surpassed next year. This month marks a milestone for FSEP, with over 36,000 individual clinicians having undertaken the FSEP assessment over 100,000 times, since the first lectures in 2004.
A suite of educational resources has been developed over that time to support the learning needs of all clinicians caring for women in the antenatal, or intrapartum period. This includes a range of face-to-face lectures and webinars, an extensive and evolving online program (OFSEP), a book and eBook, an App, teaching tools, the FSEP assessment tool and graphical item maps (GIM). These resources are supported by 9 publications from FSEP in international journals, with more on the way.
The benefit of the high volume of FSEP participants is twofold. The feedback collected from the participants at every session can be collated and used to inform ongoing development. The high volume of assessment data means that data can be intensively interrogated annually to let us know which MCQs are working well (discrimination) or not; and if not, why that might be the case. The data can also pinpoint where participants, collectively, might be struggling, informing our future education direction or focus. The data also allows assessment of the individual educators, relative to their participants scoring on the assessment, and individual MCQs. This means successful strategies can be shared and utilised by all the educators, ensuring consistency across the team.
As it has been from the outset: the purpose of the FSEP is to improve CTG use, interpretation, and management, with a view to improving outcomes. While causation is difficult to prove, the VMIA data suggest improvements have been made in Victoria in terms of intrapartum outcomes, since FSEP was established in 2004.
Mark Beaves (he/him)
Head of Quality Assurance Programs
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Bec McPhee
Head of Advocacy & Communications
bmcphee@ranzcog.edu.au
+61 413 258 166