Reducing midwife burnout at organisational level - Midwives need time, space and a positive work-place culture.

BACKGROUND: Maternity care organisations have a responsibility to ensure the health and welfare of their staff. Rates of burnout are high in midwifery compared to other professionals. Therefore, exploring how it can be reduced is imperative. AIM: To explore with midwives the contributors to burnout and how best to reduce burnout in a maternity hospital in Ireland. METHODS: A Participatory Action Research study involving Co-operative Inquiry meetings (n = 5) with practising midwives (n = 21) between October 2018 and March 2019, in a large, urban teaching maternity hospital in Ireland. The transcribed data were analysed using Thematic Network Analysis. FINDINGS: Several recommendations were made for maternity organisations, to reduce or prevent burnout. These include improving workplace culture, increasing support and acknowledgement, offering time and space for debriefing and reflection and regular rotation of staff. Consistent staff shortages are, however, a barrier to adhering to these recommendations. CONCLUSION: This study is the first of its kind to offer an in-depth exploration with midwives into the main contributors of burnout and what can be done at an organisational level to reduce burnout among midwives. The findings of this study highlighted the importance of working relationships. Additionally, owing to the nature of midwifery practice, time and space need to be created for midwives to debrief and reflect. However, there is an urgent need for healthcare systems to combat staffing shortages in order for these strategies to be successful.

A participatory action research study exploring midwives' understandings of the concept of burnout in Ireland.

INTRODUCTION: In depth exploration of the burnout phenomenon among midwives is sparse. The concept has been extensively studied, but predominantly reports rates and evaluates interventions to reduce burnout. A definition has yet to be offered in the literature from a midwifery perspective. AIMS: To explore midwives' understandings of burnout, professionally and personally, in the context of contemporary maternity care in Ireland. METHODS: This was a Two-phase Participatory Action Research study. Five co-operative inquiry meetings were held with practising midwives (n=21) over a six-month period between October 2018 and March 2019, in a large, urban teaching maternity hospital in Dublin, Ireland. FINDINGS: We found that multiple factors contributed to midwives' perceptions and understandings of the concept of burnout. Midwives defined burnout as persistent stress and exhaustion, with an associated reduction of their individual coping abilities, motivation, empathy and/or efficacy, is unique to the individual and is primarily, in the midwifery context, caused and inextricably linked to excessive workload. CONCLUSION: Burnout is a complex concept with many entities and its significance and impact within the midwifery profession highlights the importance of its exploration and understanding. This study is the first of its kind to explore, with midwives, the concept of burnout. The elements of stress and exhaustion in the definition mirror existing definitions in the literature.

A Rapid Realist Review of Quality Care Process Metrics Implementation in Nursing and Midwifery Practice.

Quality measurement initiatives promote quality improvement in healthcare but can be challenging to implement effectively. This paper presents a Rapid Realist Review (RRR) of published literature on Quality Care-Process Metrics (QCP-M) implementation in nursing and midwifery practice. An RRR informed by RAMESES II standards was conducted as an efficient means to synthesize evidence using an expert panel. The review involved research question development, quality appraisal, data extraction, and evidence synthesis. Six program theories summarised below identify the key characteristics that promote positive outcomes in QCP-M implementation. Program Theory 1: Focuses on the evidence base and accessibility of the QCP-M and their ease of use by nurses and midwives working in busy and complex care environments. Program Theory 2: Examines the influence of external factors on QCP-M implementation. Program Theory 3: Relates to existing cultures and systems within clinical sites. Program Theory 4: Relates to nurses' and midwives' knowledge and beliefs. Program Theory 5: Builds on the staff theme of Programme Theory four, extending the culture of organizational learning, and highlights the meaningful engagement of nurses and midwives in the implementation process as a key characteristic of success. Program Theory 6: Relates to patient needs. The results provide nursing and midwifery policymakers and professionals with evidence-based program theory that can be translated into action-orientated strategies to help guide successful QCP-M implementation.

The importance of nurturing trusting relationships to embed shared decision-making during pregnancy and childbirth.

OBJECTIVE: To generate greater awareness of the contextual and relational factors that influence women's capacity to participate in shared decision-making during childbirth. METHODS: A three-phase participatory action research approach involving in-depth interviews and co-operative inquiry meetings. SETTING: Dublin, Ireland in a large maternity hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Five postnatal women who gave birth to live healthy babies, and attended obstetric or midwifery-led care and 13 practising midwives. FINDINGS: This paper presents the findings from the third phase of a three-phase action research study exploring the action's women consider necessary to embed informed choice, into practice. The findings reveal that multiple organisational and relational factors influence how women can participate in shared decision-making including the model of care they attended, continuity of carer, power dynamics, hospital policies and trust in self and others. Women's relationships with maternity care professionals reveals that exercising choice is not only defined by but contingent on the degree of trust in their relationships with maternity care professionals.

Enablers and challenges to advanced nursing and midwifery practice roles.

AIM: To describe the enablers and challenges to the development and implementation of advanced nursing and midwifery practice roles in Ireland. BACKGROUND: Leadership strategies need to be put in place to enhance the development and implementation of advanced nursing and midwifery practice roles. METHOD: A descriptive qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (n = 15) was undertaken with nurses and midwives working in specialist and advanced practice roles and participants from other areas such as legislative, regulatory, policy, pharmacy, medicine and education. RESULTS: Participant's perspectives on the enablers and challenges to enacting specialist and advanced practice roles resulted in the generation of three themes: organisational factors; collegial, interprofessional and interpersonal support; and role clarity, economic and regulatory contexts. CONCLUSION: Addressing organisational factors, encouraging collegial and interprofessional support and establishing role clarity contribute to the effective development and implementation of the role of advanced practitioners. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND MIDWIFERY MANAGEMENT: Managers of nursing services need to provide leadership in developing strategies to enhance the enablers and overcome the challenges to advanced practice role development in their own organisation.

Women's experiences of exercising informed choices as expressed through their sense of self and relationships with others in Ireland: A participatory action research study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore women's experiences of the concept of informed choice during pregnancy and childbirth. METHODS: A three-phase action research approach. In the second phase of the study (reported in this paper), 15 women were interviewed to establish their experiences of informed choice. SETTING: Dublin, Ireland in a large maternity hospital. FINDINGS: We found that multiple factors influence how women experience informed choice including; their sense of self and the quality of their relationships with maternity care professionals. Women's experiences as expressed through their sense of self reveal that informed choice, is not only defined by but contingent on the quality of women's relationships with their caregiver and their ability to engage in a process of shared decision-making with them. KEY CONCLUSIONS: Informed choice is experienced as a relational construct women's relationships with maternity care professionals can influence their perceptions of their sense of self following childbirth. Supportive relationships are key to supporting the concept of informed choice.

Developing and sustaining specialist and advanced practice roles in nursing and midwifery: A discourse on enablers and barriers.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To collate, synthesise and discuss published evidence and expert professional opinion on enablers and barriers to the development and sustainability of specialist and advanced practice roles in nursing and midwifery. BACKGROUND: Expanded practice is a response to population health needs, healthcare costs and practitioners' willingness to expand their scope of practice through enhanced responsibility, accountability and professional autonomy. DESIGN: This discursive paper is based on a rapid review of literature on enablers and barriers to the development and sustainability of specialist and advanced practice roles and is part of a wider policy analysis. METHODS: We analysed and synthesised of 36 research articles, reviews and discussion papers on enablers and barriers in the development and sustainability of expanded practice roles. RESULTS: Several factors enable role expansion, including: role clarity; credentialing and endorsement; availability of education for expanded roles; individual practitioners' dispositions towards role expansion; support from peers, other professionals and the work organisation; and costs. Where limited or absent, these same factors can constrain role expansion. CONCLUSIONS: Enabling nurses and midwives to practice to their full scope of education and expertise is a global challenge for disciplinary leadership, a national challenge for professional regulation and a local challenge for employers and individual clinicians. These challenges need to be addressed through multistakeholder coordinated efforts at these four levels. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This discursive paper synthesises empirical evidence and expert professional opinion on the factors that enable or hinder the development and sustainability of specialist and advanced practice roles. Providing a critical appraisal of current knowledge, it provides a reference source for disciplinary debate and policy development regarding the nursing and midwifery resource and informs clinicians of the myriad issues that can impact on their capacity to expand their scope of practice.

An overview of the outcomes and impact of specialist and advanced nursing and midwifery practice, on quality of care, cost and access to services: A narrative review.

OBJECTIVES: This paper presents the results of a systematic rapid review and narrative synthesis of the literature of the outcomes and impact of specialist and advanced nursing and midwifery practice regarding quality of care, cost and access to services. DESIGN: A rapid review was undertaken of the relevant national and international literature, regulatory and policy documents relating to the establishment and definition of nurses' and midwives' specialist and advanced practice roles. DATA SOURCES: A search of the Cumulative Index to the Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed (MEDLINE) was undertaken from 2012 to 2015. The study also included primary data collection on the perceived impact of specialist and advanced practice nursing and midwifery roles and enablers and barriers to these roles using semi-structured interviews. These are not included in this paper. REVIEW METHOD: To facilitate a systematic approach to searching the literature, the PICO framework, was adapted. RESULTS: The database search yielded 437 articles relevant to the analysis of specialist and advanced practice in relation to quality care, cost and access to services with additional articles added in a manual review of reference lists. In the final review a total of 86 articles were included as they fulfilled the eligibility criteria. CONCLUSION: The evidence presented in the 86 articles indicates that nursing and midwifery practitioners continue to be under-utilised despite the evidence that greater reliance on advanced nurse practitioners could improve accessibility of primary care services while also saving on cost. Results point to continued difficulties associated with accurate measurement of the impact of these roles on patient outcomes. This review demonstrates that there is a need for robust measurement of the impact of these roles on patient outcomes.

Evaluating midwifery-led antenatal care: using a programme logic model to identify relevant outcomes.

BACKGROUND: a range of initiatives has been introduced in Ireland and internationally in recent years to establish midwifery-led models of care, generally aimed at increasing the choices available for women for maternity care. A midwifery-led antenatal clinic was first established at the study site (a large urban maternity hospital in Dublin) and extended over recent years. This paper reports on the design of an evaluation of these midwives clinics, in particular the use of a programme logic model to select outcomes to be included in the evaluation. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: the programme logic model is used to identify the theory of a programme and is an integrative framework for the design and analysis of evaluations using qualitative and quantitative methods. Through an inclusive approach, the aim was to identify the most relevant outcomes to be included in the evaluation, by identifying and linking programme (midwifery-led antenatal clinic) outcomes to the goals, inputs and processes involved in the production of these outcomes. METHODS: the process involved a literature review, a review of policy documents and previous reviews of the clinics, interviews with midwives, obstetricians and managers to identify possible outcomes, a focus group with midwives, obstetricians, managers and women who had attended the clinics to refine and prioritise outcomes, and a follow-up survey to refine and prioritise the outcomes identified and to identify sources of data on each outcome. FINDINGS: seven categories of outcomes were identified: (1) choice, (2) relationship/interaction with caregiver, (3) experience of care, (4) preparation and education for childbirth and parenthood, (5) effectiveness of care, (6) organisational outcomes, and (7) programme viability. A range of sources of information was identified for each outcome, including existing documentation and data, chart audit, survey of women, and interviews and focus groups with midwives, obstetricians, managers and women. CONCLUSIONS: the programme logic model provided an inclusive, systematic and transparent approach to identifying relevant outcomes to be included in the evaluation. The information obtained has been used since to design the evaluation project, which is currently being concluded.