Neonatal Resuscitation Education Program - NeoResus

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Initiative Type
Education and Training
Status
Sustained
Added
15 April 2019
Last updated
30 January 2024

Summary

Queensland Health's NeoResus Training equips clinicians with the skills to confidently and effectively restore spontaneous respiration and adequate circulation in newborns. The training also supports clinicians to review local processes for responding to neonatal emergencies and develop strategies to mitigate risks.

Training consists of two skills-based, teamwork-focused training programs: First Response (half day workshop) and Advanced Resuscitation (full day workshop), with each comprised of face-to-face and online modules. Facilitators are supported with educator resources and regular support through the Statewide Neonatal Education Group. Training is available to clinicians that might attend a birth outside of maternity and neonatal care settings including emergency departments, operating theatres, Level 1 - 2 non-birthing facilities, the Royal Flying Doctors Service, LifeFlight and the Queensland Ambulance Service.

Queensland Health NeoResus training aligns with the Queensland Clinical Guideline: Neonatal resuscitation and Australian Resuscitation Council (2016) Guidelines 13.1 -13.10.

Key dates
Mar 2012
Implementation sites
All Hospital and Health Services (HHSs) with birthing services including regional, rural and remote facilities (excludes CHQHHS)
Partnerships
Northern Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Network, Statewide Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Network, Queensland Clinical Guidelines, Victorian Newborn Resuscitation Project

Aim

To ensure that all Queensland Health clinicians who might attend a birth receive newborn resuscitation training that is consistent, accessible, multi-disciplinary, scenario-based, and sustainable.

Benefits

NeoResus standardises neonatal resuscitation training for all maternity and newborn care facilities in Queensland, including non-birthing sites, and ensures compliance with Clinical Skills Capability Framework (CSCF) requirements. The training equips clinicians, who may not commonly attend a birth, with the skills to confidently and effectively restore spontaneous respiration and adequate circulation in newborns.

Background

The vast majority of newborn infants will make the transition from intra-uterine to extra-uterine life successfully, and will not require any assistance to establish effective respiration after birth. Only a small minority of newborns (approximately 7 per cent of babies born in Australian hospitals) will require gentle assistance to make the transition from placental gas exchange to pulmonary gas exchange.

Less than 1 per cent of Australian newborns will require resuscitation interventions such as intubation and external chest compressions at the time of their birth. In many birth settings throughout Australia, a person with the expertise to perform such procedures may not be immediately available at the time of birth. With this in mind, the ability of the attending birth team to initiate first response assessment and interventions are seen as most critical and therefore the core focus of the NeoResus program.

Queensland Health NeoResus training is adapted from the Victorian Newborn Resuscitation Project to suit the Queensland context.

Solutions Implemented

  • Neonatal resuscitation education is readily available to all clinical staff in Queensland Health hospitals that are likely to support birth.
  • Approximately 3,000 clinicians attend Queensland Health's NeoResus Training annually.
  • All staff working in maternity and newborn care have access to training in neonatal resuscitation. Training is currently available at more than 50 facilities statewide.

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017: Australia’s Mothers and Babies 2015 in brief

Queensland Maternal and Perinatal Quality Council Report

Further Reading

Queensland Health iLearn Catalogue - NeoResus

Queensland Clinical Guidelines

Victorian Newborn Resuscitation Project

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Key contact

Brent Knack
Principal Project Officer
Healthcare Improvement Unit
(07) 3328 9558
Statewide_maternity__neonatal_network@health.qld.gov.au

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