An exploration of midwives' perceptions of newborn resuscitation programmes for midwifery students

"Keep It Simple"-Co-Creation of a Tailored Newborn Resuscitation Course for Midwifery Students

PURPOSE

To develop a tailored newborn resuscitation course for midwifery students.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A qualitative study using an explorative, abductive approach was applied. Co-creation through workshops was facilitated to develop a tailored newborn resuscitation course for midwifery students. Four workshops with midwifery students and midwives were conducted from May to October 2020. Twenty participants attended one workshop of their choice. Five out of Norway's six midwifery education programmes participated, and included midwives from across Norway. All workshops were held digitally via the Zoom platform. A seven-step framework analysis method was applied to analyse the workshop data.

RESULTS

We identified four themes: 1) practice guidance, 2) technical skills 3) non-technical skills 4) innovative methods.

CONCLUSION

Findings emphasize the importance of practice guidance, technical skills, non-technical skills and innovative methods to facilitate the learning process. However, these skills cannot be acquired without the context to facilitate them, and thus a supportive culture is essential to sustain newborn resuscitation expertise as a midwife/midwifery student. We found that midwives expressed the same need to learn, train and prepare themselves for newborn resuscitation as midwifery students. The importance of facilitating the learning of newborn resuscitation with low-dose, high-frequency training in a supportive culture thus matters to both midwifery students and expert midwives.