gms | German Medical Science

Background: The increasing staff shortage leads to the fact that every fifth hospital in Germany is not able to find midwives to fill job vacancies. On average 1.6 full-time employees are missing in every delivery room. At the same time there is an increasing number of women who have to be cared for [1]. Due to this situation and the fact that current calculation tools to determine the personal demand are out-dated, midwives in a leading position are facing the challenge to create a satisfying environment for their staff and the women cared for. As a result an increasing workload leads to a decline in the internal work motivation and work satisfaction of the midwives [2].

In order to address the difficulties related to personal management and quality assurance, midwives in leading positions need to have knowledge of personnel and operational management.

The academization of midwifery has the potential to address these issues. The module "Management and Quality Management" was included in the course of studies at the Evangelical University of Berlin (Evangelische Hochschule Berlin).

Aim: The compulsory elective module "Management and Quality Management" prepares midwifery students to deal with the challenges they will face within the German healthcare system. Students develop a fundamental knowledge of business administration in order to competently and independently plan self-managed activities as well as to define and evaluate processes of interface management with adjacent professional groups and sectors. The development of competencies related to business administration is based on the transfer of essential knowledge about the functioning of the German health system as well as concepts of staff demand analysis. Moreover, an insight into the management of a company in the health care system helps to understand the personnel and structural problems in the management of delivery rooms. Furthermore, to secure and continually improve their own working quality skills the students are acquired to develop and implement a suitable quality management system for their own activities.

Method: The degree programme BSc. Midwifery includes the elective module "Management and Quality Management“ in the eighth semester (total workload of 450 hours). In a volume of eight semester periods per week the seminars "Business Administration, Marketing and Public Relations", "Business Planning and Project Management” and “Quality Management in health care systems” are taught and learned. The teaching and learning concept includes the development of leadership competencies, as well as the competencies to determine adequate staff demand analysis, including the development of innovative methods of personnel calculation. The basic understanding of issues related to business administration and the acquired knowledge of hospital financing enables students to create a successful business plan for their own business. Moreover, the design of a quality management manual initiates and supports a theory-practice transfer.

Results: After the first cycle (n=5) of the elective module in the summer semester 2017 students evaluated the seminar contents as valuable, practical and fundamental knowledge. They considered the knowledge as vital for their professional future.

Relevance: Students need to be prepared to take on executive functions in the clinical and freelance field. This also includes the ability to calculate the staff demands and to develop projects and implement those into practice. The quality management manuals designed during the course are in accordance with the legal norms and are a compulsory necessity for self-employed midwives in Germany.

Conclusion: Based on the positive feedback the compulsory elective module "Management and Quality Management" will be offered in the coming semesters at the EHB.

Ethical criteria and conflict of interests: The research / project was not submitted to an ethics committee for the following reasons: It concerns the structure of a module at the Protestant University Berlin, no data was collected from clients or patients. It was financed from own resources. There is no conflict of interest.

The PDF file of the poster submitted for the meeting is available in German as Attachment 1 [Attach. 1].