Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

4-24-2023

Abstract

Inaccurate blood pressure measurement techniques can severely impact patient health, from missed diagnoses to medical mismanagement with the potential development of cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. Researchers have reported for decades that all skill levels of healthcare providers perform inaccurate blood pressure measurement techniques. This problem can be attributed to one-time instruction with no refresher follow-up and no standardization of technique. Competency-based education facilitates healthcare providers to achieve competency in knowledge and performance of learned new skills and refresher training. Ultimately, competency-based education develops lifelong learners resulting in improved patient outcomes. The educational intervention was a thirty-minute eLearning codeveloped by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association for this study. A convenience sample of twenty-nine primary care medical assistants was recruited. Pre-and-post intervention knowledge and performance were tested with pre-and-post Knowledge Survey and objective structured clinical examination data tools to answer the question, “Does a competency-based educational webinar improve medical assistant performance using proper BP measurement techniques and recognition of elevated BP readings?” The pre-and-post-intervention Knowledge Survey results improved from 60% to 77%. Their overall performance of accurate blood pressure measurement technique improved from 36% on the pre-test to 53% on the post-test to 68% on the final test. These results show that competency-based education effectively corrects inaccurate blood pressure measurement and maintains correct technique.

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