Note: Audrey Lyndon, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a CTSI K Scholar.
By Martha Ross
As a clinical nurse specialist in labor and delivery, Audrey Lyndon was called to consult on those unusual but rapidly unfolding cases where a mother’s or baby’s health was in jeopardy.
It gave her a broad view of how a team of nurses, physicians and midwives responded to sudden and potentially dire situations. Sometimes they would effectively share information and work well together to save the mother and baby. But there were times when things didn’t go so well.
“We’d see cases where someone would recognize a problem, but for whatever reason opportunities for a rescue were missed,” says Lyndon, who, on June 16, in recognition of her body of research and public service, will receive a highly coveted Distinguished Professional Service Award from the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN). Lyndon is best known for her work demonstrating how communication failures contribute to preventable adverse events in perinatal care – and for developing strategies to improve safety on labor and delivery units.
Not Always the Most Natual Thing in the World
Most women come to hospitals expecting to safely deliver a healthy baby. After all, birth is one of the most natural things in the world and “usually works best if we let it evolve and not get in the way,” Lyndon says.
Nevertheless, when the unpredictable happens – the mother’s blood pressure spikes, infection sets in, or the baby goes into distress – missed opportunities can lead to devastating consequences.
Lyndon wanted to understand why some teams respond well to the unpredictable and others don’t. “That was really the genesis of what I’m interested in as a researcher,” she says.
Read more at Science of Caring (School of Nursing publication)