Intubation Competency Assessment

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that neonatal–perinatal medicine (NPM) fellowship training programs document and attest to trainee competency in common procedures, such as neonatal tracheal intubation (TI). However, there are no published guidelines or evidenced based approaches for how competency in TI should be determined or evaluated. Given the possibility of long-term complications associated with TI, it is essential for patient safety that neonatologists can perform TI safely and effectively. This chapter reviews the strengths and shortcomings of methods historically and currently employed to assess competency in TI followed by a discussion of newer and future methods of assessment that may provide safer and more effective approaches to TI education and assessment. This chapter will describe pedagogical frameworks, data management, and TI equipment and tools that can augment existing TI curricula and assessment to provide more objective data when evaluating a clinician’s competency to perform lifesaving yet high-risk procedures.