The Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative’s PROVIDE (Promoting Primary Vaginal Deliveries) Initiative has officially kicked off state-wide. As part of the initiative, trainers will be travelling the state to provide regional workshops to hospitals involved in the project that focus on training hospital staff on labor support skills.

The workshops review:

• The benefits of primary vaginal delivery and morbidity and mortality risks of cesarean sections
• Definitions, the most up-to-date evidence-based recommendations, and clinical implications related to the stages of labor
• The physiology and hormones of labor and techniques that promote labor progress in latent, active, and second stages of labor
• The evidence for the use of comfort techniques and hands-on practice with a variety of coping strategies for each stage, including promotion of optimal fetal rotation and descent
• Shared decision making/communication best practices for the stages of labor
• Patient and family education tips and resources related to each stage
• The evidence and current parameters for fetal heart rate monitoring, including intermittent auscultation, the use of Leopold’s maneuvers, and documentation tips

The first workshop was held in January at Bayfront Health in St. Petersburg. Over 40 health care providers, mostly labor and delivery nurses, from 10 hospitals were in attendance. The workshop was led by Certified Nurse Midwives Jessica Brumley and Heather Murphy, and Birth Doula Childbirth Educators Emily Bronson and Christie Collbran.

A second workshop was held in February in Ft. Myers at Lee Health, and many more are being scheduled. Feedback on the trainings has been very positive; attendees loved having all the hands-on practice. Nurses expressed that this is a great training both for new nurses and as a refresher course to keep them up-to-date.

The FPQC team looks forward to bringing the workshop around the state for PROVIDE Initiative hospitals! For more information on the FPQC or the PROVIDE Initiative, visit FPQC.org.