Objective: To determine whether a brief educational program can reduce variability of interpretation of pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP) tracings.
Design: Prospective, observational study.
Participants: Twenty-three intensive care nurses and 18 physicians.
Interventions: Participants interpreted PAOP tracings before and 1 week after receiving a single, brief educational session and/or written materials ("in-service") designed to reduce interobserver variability of PAOP interpretation. Differences between two reference values before and after in-service (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 ineffective in reducing variability of interpretation of PAOP tracings. These data suggest that more comprehensive educational tools and/or sustained programs may be required to improve performance of critical care personnel in PAOP interpretation.