Abstract
BackgroundWoman-centred care is recognised as a fundamental construct of midwifery practice yet to date, there has been no validated tool available to measure it. This study aims to develop and test a self-report tool to measure woman-centred care in midwives.MethodsA staged approach was used for tool development including deductive methods to generate items, testing content validity with a group of experts, and psychometrically testing the instrument with a sample drawn from the target audience. The draft 58 item tool was distributed in an online survey using professional networks in Australia and New Zealand. Testing included item analysis, principal components analysis with direct oblimin rotation and subscale analysis, and internal consistency reliability.ResultsIn total, 319 surveys were returned. Analysis revealed five factors explaining 47.6% of variance. Items were reduced to 40. Internal consistency (.92) was high but varied across factors. Factors reflected the extent to which a midwife meets the woman’s unique needs; balances the woman’s needs within the context of the maternity service; ensures midwifery philosophy underpins practice; uses evidence to inform collaborative practice; and works in partnership with the woman.ConclusionThe Woman-Centred Care Scale-Midwife Self Report is the first step in developing a valid and reliable tool to enable midwives to self-assess their woman-centredness. Further research in alternate populations and refinement is warranted.
Highlights
Woman-centred care is a concept that emerged from the women’s health movement of the 1970s and 80 s underpinned by a feminist ethic [1]
The fundamental nature of woman-centred care to midwifery practice is espoused by peak professional midwifery organisations in countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) [11], Canada [12], and the United States of America (USA) [13]
The current study addresses this limitation, focusing on the development of a tool to measure midwives’ self-reported woman-centredness
Summary
Woman-centred care is a concept that emerged from the women’s health movement of the 1970s and 80 s underpinned by a feminist ethic [1]. Recent phenomenological research [15] revealed that woman-centred care is the practical manifestation of working within the broader midwifery philosophy of being ‘with woman’. In-depth interviews with 31 midwives working in a variety of models revealed numerous practice attributes of woman-centred care. Maputle and Donavon [16] undertook a concept analysis, identifying the defining attributes of woman-centred care as: mutual participation and responsibility sharing, information sharing and empowering, communication and listening, accommodative midwifery actions, and maximising human and material infrastructure. Woman-centred care is recognised as a fundamental construct of midwifery practice yet to date, there has been no validated tool available to measure it. This study aims to develop and test a self-report tool to measure woman-centred care in midwives
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