An Evaluation of the Midwifery Development Unit Service Specifications, Through the Quality Assurance Model for Midwifery

Holmes, Elizabeth Ann (1995) An Evaluation of the Midwifery Development Unit Service Specifications, Through the Quality Assurance Model for Midwifery. Master in Medical Science thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The United Kingdom's first Midwifery Development Unit was established at Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital in July 1992. This is a large university teaching hospital with around 5000 deliveries per annum which serves a relatively disadvantaged population (McGinley, Turnbull, Fyvie, Johnstone & MacLennan, 1995). The aim of the Unit was to improve the quality of care provided to women during pregnancy and childbirth. The Unit's objectives were to: introduce a midwifery care programme for healthy pregnant women; encourage participating midwives to utilise their skills to the full; monitor and evaluate the unit; and develop audit and educational tools for use by the profession and other health boards. The Midwifery Development Unit consisted of a midwifery and a research team, overseen by a multidisciplinary steering group. The research team was responsible for evaluating the new midwifery care programme using a randomised controlled trial which compared the clinical, psychosocial and economic outcomes of 648 women randomised to receive midwife-managed care, with 651 women randomised to receive shared care (Midwifery Development Unit, 1995a). The midwifery team developed the midwife-managed programme of care using a consumer driven Quality Assurance Model for Midwifery - QAMID (World Health Organisation, 1991; McGinley et al, 1995). Through QAMID, three seirvice specifications were generated which described the goals of the new programme and encompassed: Continuity of carer: women would be cared for by a named midwife and three associate midwives, from booking through to transfer to the health visitor in the postnatal period Individual informed care planning: each woman would hold her own Care Plan which would contain clinical notes, as well as her preferences for care and her comments on care following a debriefing session Information and choice: each woman would receive a basic Information Pack with information tailored thereafter to the woman's needs. In addition to the randomised controlled trial, a study was carried out to identify how well these service specifications were achieved. The specific objectives of the study were: to identify how many women received a Care Plan and basic Information Pack; to ascertain the number of midwives who cared for each woman; and to measure women's satisfaction with the delivery of care in relation to the service specifications.

• Item Type: Thesis (Master in Medical Science)
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Adviser: Deborah Turnbull
• Keywords: Nursing, Obstetrics
• Date of Award: 1995
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1995-75797
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2019 09:15
• Last Modified: 19 Dec 2019 09:15
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/75797