title: Construct validity of a novel assessment tool for ultrasound-guided axillary brachial plexus block.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity and reliability of a novel metrics-based assessment tool, previously developed for ultrasound-guided axillary brachial plexus block. Five expert and eight novice anaesthetists performed a total of 18 ultrasound-guided axillary brachial plexus blocks on the same number of patients. A trained investigator video-taped procedures according to a pre-defined protocol. Two trained consultant anaesthetists independently scored the videos using the assessment tool. Compared with novices, experts completed more steps (mean 41.0 vs. 33.1, p = 0.001), had fewer procedural errors (2.8 vs. 7.9, p < 0.0001), had fewer critical errors (0.8 vs. 1.3, p = 0.030), and fewer total errors (3.5 vs. 9.1, p < 0.0001). The mean inter-rater reliability for scoring of experts' performance was 0.91, for novices' performance was 0.84, and for all performance combined (n = 18) was 0.88. This assessment tool is valid, and discriminates reliably between expert and novice performance for placement of ultrasound-guided axillary brachial plexus blocks.
authors.affiliation: University College Cork and Cork University Hospital, Cork, Ireland. dr19osman@icloud.com.
authors.forename: O M A
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Cork University Hospital and the ASSERT Centre, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
authors.affiliation: ASSERT Centre, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Gallagher
authors.affiliation: St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Breslin
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.|University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Nix
authors.affiliation: Cork University Hospital and the ASSERT Centre, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Shorten
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000193:education; D001917:Brachial Plexus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D065527:Brachial Plexus Block / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D014743:Videotape Recording
keywords: axillary brachial plexus block; metrics; ultrasonography; validation