Development of global skills can focus the nurse and midwife to influence policy-level decisions. Human resource planning that can impact countrywide provision of health care begins in the preservice setting for both nurses and midwives. A global experience can be a value-added component to the well-rounded education of future nurses. Education during preparation for entry into practice is a strategic way to develop a worldview. Incorporating reflective practice can build skills and shape attitudes to prepare the new nurse to be comfortable as a global healthcare provider. An expanded world view is the springboard to more robust and informed involvement and inclusion in policy-level discussions.
Changing institutional policy may have limitations without first considering normative practice. Using simulation combined with institutional health policy appears to result in significant uptake of practice change. Qualitative studies exploring the interconnections between cultural norms and decision making may be informative about promoting practice change particularly in this setting. Upscaling midwifery has been recommended to improve maternal and child health in India.
Introduction
Midwifery care in the birth center setting has proven to be a safe and ideal option for some low‐risk women. Although rare, perinatal complications that require emergent transfer to a higher level of care can occur in community birth settings. Optimal perinatal outcomes during emergent transfers depend on excellent interprofessional communication and collaboration. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to implement interprofessional emergent birth center transfer mock drills in order to improve communication and collaboration among birth center midwives, local paramedics, and receiving hospital staff during emergent birth center transfers.
Process
Birth center midwives and hospital staff provided education sessions on perinatal emergencies and the scope of practice for midwives for local paramedics. Paramedics’ knowledge level was assessed with pretests and posttests, before and after the education sessions, respectively. An interprofessional, collaborative mock drill was then organized and included birth center, paramedic, and hospital staff. All participants received a questionnaire after the drill.
Outcomes
Mean test scores after paramedic education sessions increased by 43.5% (n = 95, P <.001). The Likert‐type scale questionnaire given to mock drill participants after drill completion revealed that 97% indicated probable support for the sustainability of future mock drills in the birth center setting (n = 10).
Discussion
Health care providers can help improve perinatal outcomes during emergent transfers from the community setting by having clearly outlined guidelines and procedures and communicating efficiently with interprofessional members of the health care team. Both interprofessional education sessions and collaborative mock drills are effective methods to increase knowledge of perinatal emergencies, thus improving interprofessional communication and collaboration during emergent birth center transfers.
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