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Importance: Management of maternal cardiac arrest (MCA) requires understanding the unique physiology of pregnancy and modifications to life support. Health care professionals have historically demonstrated inadequate knowledge and skills necessary to treat MCA., Objective: To evaluate the effect of Obstetric Life Support (OBLS) education on health care professionals' cognitive performance, skills, and self-efficacy in managing MCA., Design, Setting, and Participants: In this single-masked randomized clinical trial, 46 health care professionals, including emergency medical service and hospital staff representing diverse specialties, were randomized to intervention or control groups at a single academic medical center in Farmington, Connecticut between May 1, 2022, and July 23, 2023., Intervention: The intervention group received OBLS education, which included a blended learning curriculum with simulation-based training on common maternal medical emergencies that lead to MCA. Participants were assessed for knowledge, confidence, and skills (eg, megacode scores as team leaders during MCA simulations). Intervention participants were compared with control group participants who received no OBLS education., Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was cognitive scores. Secondary outcomes included megacode scores rated by experienced OBLS instructors masked to assignment groups, combined assessment pass rates, and cognitive and confidence scores at baseline and 6 and 12 months after education. Data were analyzed from January 2024 to May 2024., Results: Forty-six participants (mean [SD] age, 41.1 [16.2] years; 24 [52%] women) were randomized. Despite most participants holding certification in basic and advanced cardiac life support, significant between-group differences were identified in knowledge, skills, and confidence. Mean (SD) cognitive scores were 79.5% (9.4%) in the intervention group vs 63.4% (12.3%) in the control group (P < .001). Mean (SD) megacode skills were higher in the intervention vs control group (91.0% [5.0%] vs 61.0% [12.0%], P < .001), as were confidence scores (72.7 [13.3] vs 56.2 [17.9] points, P = .002). Combined assessment pass rates were 90% in the intervention group compared with 10% in the control group (P < .001)., Conclusions and Relevance: In this randomized clinical trial, OBLS education significantly improved health care professionals' knowledge, skills, and confidence in managing MCA. These findings underscore the urgent need for implementation of a standardized MCA curriculum nationwide, especially as the US continues to face unacceptably high maternal mortality rates., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05355519.

Purpose: Automated pupillometry (AP) facilitates objective pupillary assessment. In this study, we aimed at assessing nursing perspective about the utility of AP in neurocritically ill children to understand acceptance and usage barriers to guide development of a standardized use protocol., Methods: We conducted a web-based, cross-sectional, anonymous, Google™ survey of nurses at two independent pediatric ICUs which have been using AP over last four years. The survey included questions related to user-friendliness, barriers, acceptance, frequency of use, and method of documenting AP findings., Results: A total of 31 nurses responded to the survey. A total of 25 nurses (80.6%) used the automated pupillometer and 19 (61.3%) nurses preferred to use the automated pupillometer on critically ill intubated patients. Respondents rated the pupillometer a median [IQR] frequency of use of 7/10 [4-9] and a mean user-friendliness of 8/10 [7-10]. Barriers to pupillometer use included pupillometer unavailability, technical issues, lack of perceived clinical significance, and infection control., Conclusion: Nurses have widely adopted the use of automated pupillometer in the PICU especially for critically ill intubated patients and rate it favorably for user-friendliness. Barriers against its use include limited resources, infection concerns, technical issues, and a lack of perceived clinical significance and training. Implementation of standardized PICU protocol for AP usage in critically ill children, may enhance the acceptance, increase usage and aid in objective assessments., Practice Implications: These findings can be used to create a standardized protocol on implementing automated pupillometry in the PICU for critically ill children., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to disclose., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)