Stephanie Saunders
Research Mentor: Mariana Masteling Pereira
Mentor Department: Mechanical Engineering, Engineering
Author(s): Stephanie Saunders, Mariana Masteling , Jennifer LaCross
Session: Session 5 (2:00 PM – 2:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 139
Abstract
Pelvic floor disorders are commonly experienced by women, particularly following vaginal birth and with aging. Symptoms from these disorders negatively affect women’ s quality of life and participation in physical activity. Nurse midwives are key members of the multidisciplinary care team who provide pelvic floor care, but education and training in pelvic floor anatomy is lacking in midwifery training programs. Current teaching materials are distorted and mostly inaccurate. This study evaluated the effect of a three-hour interactive training session using anatomically accurate 3D-printed pelvic floor models on midwifery students’ knowledge of pelvic floor anatomy and birth injury. A model of the pelvic floor was developed in 3D Slicer software from an MRI of a nulliparous individual with normal anatomy from Michigan Medicine’s Pelvic Floor Research Group repository. Important structures such as the pelvic bones, perineal membrane, levator ani muscles, and obturator internus were included as detachable elements. Twenty-one models were 3D printed and assembled for the session. An eight-item electronic pre/post-test survey, based on Kirkpatrick’s evaluation framework, used a five-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree) to assess participant learning. Thirteen of twenty-one midwifery students completed the survey (61.9% completion rate). Median pre/post score changes reflected increased self-reported understanding across all survey items. The greatest improvement was in identification and function of the obturator internus (median change = 2, IQR: 1–2). All other items improved equally (median change = 1, IQR: 1–2). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests confirmed statistically significant improvement across all items (p < 0.01). With the expanding role of midwives in maternal care, integration of anatomically accurate models in midwifery education may improve students’ understanding of pelvic floor anatomy, ultimately improving patient care and health outcomes. Future advancements may include methods for large scale production of the models and outreach to other professional programs for model integration.
