Assessment of the Agreement level of Folliculometry Performed by Trained Nurses versus Infertility Clinicians

Ahmad, Eman R; Al-Turki, Haifa A

doi:10.21608/asnj.2016.60362

Assessment of the Agreement level of Folliculometry Performed by Trained Nurses versus Infertility Clinicians

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Eman R Ahmad ¹
Haifa A Al-Turki ²

¹ Obstetric and Gynecologic Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Assiut University, Egypt

² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

10.21608/asnj.2016.60362

Abstract

Background: Nurses can achieve competence in performing Folliculometry (FM) during ovarian stimulation cycles (OSC) within a reasonable timeframe. However limited information is available regarding the difference in the folliculometry performance between nurses and physicians in Arab countries. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the level of agreement of the Folliculometry Scans (FS) performed by trained nurses compared to infertility clinicians. Subjects and Methods: A quazi experimental (Counterbalanced design) was conducted in the Obstetrics and Gynecology/Ultrasongraphy Unit at King Fahd Hospital University-Saudi Arabia for 104 eligible infertile consecutive patients performed 346 ultrasound scans by 6 postgraduates OBGYN nurses and 6 infertility clinicians. The nurse had hands on training given by expert infertility consultants for 8 sessions. Two tools were used for data collection, a checklist observation sheet to assess the performance of the nurses before starting the study, and the 2nd tool was the observation of follicular Scan (FS) findings of all raters. Results: Almost perfect agreement was observed between both raters regarding all FS quantitative and qualitative uterine and ovarian values at different times of menstrual cycle.Conclusion: With appropriate training and supervision, the nurse can perform FS and interpret the quantitative and qualitative findings with high level of agreement and accuracy similar to that obtained by infertility clinicians.

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