How Do You Support Early Pregnancy Losses? the Miscarriage Management Training Initiative: Improving Care for Women

Purpose for the program: Early pregnancy loss (EPL) is a common pregnancy complication.  Historically, surgical dilatation and curettage (D&C) in the operating room setting has been the standard of care.  Evolving knowledge and research have led to a paradigm shift in which three alternatives have been recognized as safe and effective treatment options.  Reviews of the research have concluded that women’s preferences should be key determinants of management when one option is not medically superior to another.  Miscarriage Management Training Initiative (MM-TI) is an evidence-based intervention designed to facilitate woman-centered approach to EPL by expanding the range of safe and effective options available, including the use of the manual vacuum aspirator (MVA), for office-based management.  Designed as a systems change approach, this intervention stresses training a cross-section of primary care disciplines in hospital and clinical settings

Proposed change:

Training registered, advance practice nurses and allied health care staff to provide comprehensive care for EPL in an office-base setting has the potential to reduce costs, provide evidence-based and community standard services and to expand access, especially for underserved women.  It also has the potential to address the myriad of emotions women experience by modeling patient-centered care.

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation:

The MM-TI was first implemented with physicians, nurses and allied health care staff in family medicine residency programs in Washington State. Our primary outcome was self-reported practice of MVA following the training.  The evaluation demonstrated a significant program effect (pre/post intent to practice MVA, controlling for individual and site-level confounders).  Also shown was a significant effect of clinical and administrative support staff knowledge of MVA on physician intent to practice MVA. 

The MM-TI has now expanded to other states and broadened the scope to include OB/GYN physicians, nurse managers, nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners and allied health care staff.  Our preliminary qualitative assessment with stakeholders in Washington State pointed to the importance of clarifying scope of practice (SOP) for miscarriage management and for MVA usage in particular. 

Implications for nursing practice:

Nurses play key roles in caring for women experiencing miscarriage (EPL).  Roles include providing direct services for EPL, education, counseling, systems management, training staff, assisting the provider and providing patient-centered care.

Keywords: Miscarriage management, spontaneous abortion, early pregnancy loss, patient-centered care