Midwives׳ experiences of workplace resilience

Sustainability and resilience in midwifery: A discussion paper

“…In the context of midwifery, practice sustainability has been examined in very different organisational contexts: in hospital and community settings, and in countries with very different maternity services (see, for example, Deery, 2010;Engel, 2000;Foureur et al, 2013;McDonald et al 2013;Hunter & Warren, 2014;Wakelin & Skinner, 2007). The emergence of such research points towards not only the importance of sustainability and resilience to midwifery, but also towards the significance of understanding the impact that local conditions and working arrangements may have in relation to resilience and sustainability.…”

“…In the UK study Hunter and Warren (2014) define resilience as "the ability of an individual to respond positively and consistently to adversity, using effective coping strategies" (p.927).…”

“…This small qualitative descriptive study sought to explore the experiences of midwives who had been working for more than 15 years and self-defined as resilient, using a closed online discussion group (for further details see Hunter & Warren 2014). Thematic analysis indicated four overarching themes; the first theme related to the adversity experienced:…”

Professional issues in maternal mental health scale (PIMMHS): The development and initial validation of a brief and valid measure

“…Given that the PIMMHS-Emotion sub-scale relates to emotional burden, it is perhaps surprising, given that the training itself is mental health related, that the content of training generally does not address or reflect upon the potential emotional burden to the student midwife herself during the training process. Whilst this could be considered a speculative claim, previous literature has identified the gaps in education and training in addressing the emotional impact that supporting women can have on midwives and calls for the inclusion in training and education of content such as, emotion work skills including professional boundary setting, stress management and healthy coping strategies 45 . Omission of this content may potentially promote cognitive dissonance during training, which leads to dissatisfaction with the training itself and ultimately impacts on the quality of clinical care in the event of post-qualification encountering of women with PMHP.…”

Confidentiality, anonymity and amnesty for midwives in distress seeking online support – Ethical?

“…The paucity of attention given to the wellbeing of the healthcare professional has been identified as the missing response in staff management across the globe [33][34][35][36] . Specifically, midwives may be at an increased risk of psychological distress due to the unique and traumatic work environments they experience 35,37 .…”