Midwifery
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to explore health-care professionals' views about safety in maternity services. This paper identifies aspects of care that are less safe than they should be, possible ways to improve safety, and potential obstacles to achieving these improvements. This study was part of the King's Fund inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England. ⋯ policy makers and professional bodies need to take the concerns expressed by staff seriously. Concerted efforts are required to improve maternity services and support maternity professionals.
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to present issues associated with recruitment of women in maternity hospitals to a population-based case-control study of very preterm birth. ⋯ recruitment to studies in the maternity setting in the postpartum period is a challenge. Barriers to recruitment that may have introduced selection bias in this study include: recruitment at many hospitals; short postnatal hospital stay; reliance on hospital staff to make the first approach to women; and low response from women whose babies did not survive. A dialogue between researchers and clinical midwives is proposed to explore ways of increasing researchers' understanding of the complex and demanding hospital environment, and to improve research awareness among clinical midwives.
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to explore and describe Bachelor of Midwifery students' learning experiences, specifically the role of the midwifery preceptor in learning and development of competency, from the students' perspective. The findings reported are taken from a wider investigation into Bachelor of Midwifery student's achievement of competency. ⋯ a positive midwife preceptor-student relationship is an integral part of successful student midwife learning, and preceptors with helpful qualities enhance learning. Hands-on learning was emphasised as the most beneficial learning experience and students sought opportunities to work with midwives who imbued the philosophy they admired rather than becoming desensitised or socialised into a midwifery culture that was at odds with the course's philosophy. These findings are potentially useful to inform midwives and agencies teaching student midwives about preceptor behaviours helpful for student midwife learning.
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to describe the structure and organisation of hospital postnatal care in Victoria, Australia. ⋯ current structures such as standard postnatal documentation (clinical pathways) and fixed length of stay, may inhibit rather than support individualised care for women after childbirth. There is a need to move towards greater flexibility in providing of early postnatal care, including alternative models of service delivery; choice and flexibility in the length of stay after birth; a focus on the individual with far less emphasis on care being structured around organisational requirements; and building an evidence base to guide care.