Critical Care EEG Course

Knowledge of the basic fundamental skills of electroencephalography would enable medical and nursing staffs to provide efficient and effective bedside EEG monitoring in critically ill patients.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of a 10-points EEG teaching program to allow bedside caregivers (medical and nursing intensive care unit staff) interpreting EEG in the critical care setting (#NCT03545776).

Participants are volunteers among medical and nursing ICU staff of the participating ICUs, excluding experienced or trained ICU staff members to EEG interpretation (pre-test score > 5/10).

Educational program : Medical and nursing staff will be given a 10-points EEG face-to-face initial training course that will be preceded by a pre-test evaluation and followed by delayed post-test evaluations. Training will be followed by an online teaching consisting on additional questions and answers quizzes based on the 10 following educational goals.

10-points EEG educational objectives : physiological rhythms, reactivity, symmetry, effects of sedation, burst suppression, paroxysmal activities, periodic / pseudoperiodic activities, rhythmic activities, artifacts, null EEG

In order to avoid any risk of intrasite contamination, all the learners benefiting from the training in the same department will be trained in a uniform time, with respect to the training schedule regarding post-test evaluations (day-1, day-15 and day-30). A final evaluation will be performed at day-90 after beginning of the training course.

First outcome is overall EEG interpretation at Day 90 as defined by percentage of learners with a correct answer rate. Training will be considered as efficient if more than 75% of learners are associated with a correct answer rate above 80% to EEG interpretation test at day 90 after initial training.

Secondary outcomes are before/after comparison of correct answer rate between pre-test and post-tests evaluations at day 1, day 15, day 30 and day 90 after face-to-face training. Analyzes will be carried out according to each of the 10-points educational goals, according to the medical or nursing staff category, according to the student’s degree and according to the center and to usual way of using EEG (continuous, sequential, external provider)

Related publication : Teaching Important Basic EEG Patterns of Bedside Electroencephalography to Critical Care Staffs: A Prospective Multicenter Study. Legriel S, Jacq G, Lalloz A, Geri G, Mahaux P, Bruel C, Brochon S, Zuber B, André C, Dervin K, Holleville M, Cariou A. Neurocrit Care 2020.