Deborah Ainsworth

Earlier this year, the Birthing Center was informed that Trinity Health was requiring all birthing centers to take a mandatory national certification exam in external fetal monitoring. This exam was not optional, all RNs and physicians would be required to take the exam and pass with a minimum score of 80 percent. Our manager, Debby Ainsworth, jumped right in to begin our preparation. She began gathering all the information related to the exam. We were given study books, articles, practice tests, handouts and held multiple webinars. Debby made it her personal mission that each of the 52 people that took the test were registered on time and that we had every available study guide related to this exam. Debby made the webinars available to us on Groupwise so we could watch at home, made poster boards of fetal blood gas interpretation and gave impromptu in-services at the desk and lunchroom. There were only three testing days and seven available two-hour test periods that required proctors to be present. This required Debby to be very organized and adjust people’s schedules to be sure that they had the opportunity to take the exam. On top of all this, Debby had to take the exam herself but was very supportive and encouraging all along the way. Thanks to her hard work and support our unit had a 92 percent pass rate. We can proudly wear our badges with “RNC”. We could not be more thankful and proud.