Article
Models of midwifery care – quality of midwifery care – aims of midwifery care: a literature analysis
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Authors
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Mirjam Peters
- University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule für Gesundheit), Department of Applied Health Sciences, Bochum, Germany
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Rainhild Schäfers
- University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule für Gesundheit), Department of Applied Health Sciences, Bochum, Germany
| Published: | February 13, 2018 |
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Outline
Text
Background: In the scope of their quality management system, midwives in Germany are being encouraged to evaluate the quality of their care services. According to DIN EN ISO 8402, 1995 quality is defined as “the total of features (…) of a services that rely on its suitability to fulfill defined or provided requirements”. Utility services therefore need one or various goal criteria to be measured in order to evaluate their quality. Models and theories regarding midwifery name various aims of midwifery care. But are they suitable to evaluate midwifery care?
Aim/question: What aims has midwifery care und (how) can utility services by midwives be evaluated by means of these aims from the women’s perspective?
Methods: (1) Dimensions and aims of midwifery work have been extracted from existing models and theoretical considerations regarding midwifery [1], [2], [3]. (2) These have subsequently been compared to women’s experiences and preferences in midwifery care using qualitative content analysis [4]. For this, a systematic review of qualitative studies has been performed (n=46). (3) On that basis a scale for measuring the quality of midwifery care ought to be developed.
Result: The aims named in models and theoretical considerations regarding midwifery care often create intersections or relate to one another. For example there are the concepts of control, shared decision making and autonomy. The postulated aims and dimensions are almost completely found again in women’s reports. Additionally, the qualitative studies hint at connections and rationales of these aims/dimensions from women’s perspectives. The possibility of building a scale to evaluate the quality of midwifery care using Patient Reported Outcomes is being critically discussed on the basis of the presented results.
Relevance: Dimensions of work activities instead of aim criteria are primarily named for midwives. Not only the evaluation of the own services, but also the display of the own activities are made difficult by that. The systemization of already existing aim criteria seems to be reasonable.
Recommendations/conclusion: Existing scales for assessment of midwifery services are often orientated solely bio-medical or solely psychological. Additionally, they do not reason from a comprehensive target definition. This gap could be filled by a measuring instrument built on a target definition.
Ethical criteria and conflict of interests: The research will be submitted to the Ethics Committee of the Hochschule für Gesundheit, University of Applied Sciences (hsg), in October 2017. The work was financed by third party funds from: The project is funded by the Landeszentrum Gesundheit NRW (grant number LZG TG 72 001/2016). 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].
References
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- Renfrew MJ, McFadden A, Bastos MH, Campbell J, Channon AA, Cheung NF et al. Midwifery and quality care: findings from a new evidence-informed framework for maternal and newborn care. The Lancet. 2014;384(9948):1129-45.
- 4.
- Mayring P, Gläser-Zikuda M, editors. Die Praxis der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse. 2. neu ausgestaltete Auflage. Weinheim, Basel: Beltz Verlag; 2008.
