Abstract
Within maternity hospitals midwives are expected to follow the protocol-driven culture and orders issued by senior staff. Simultaneously, midwives are expected to follow social policy documents and the Midwives Rules and Standards that advocate choice provision for childbearing women. Quality assurors and auditors of clinical practice need to be aware that these two directives sometimes clash. Allegiance to a hierarchical system driven by protocols and orders from the top down, at the same time as providing “woman-centred” care is often unattainable. In order for a midwife to action the woman's choice, resourceful thinking may be required. This paper aims to examine this issue.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 55-66 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2009 |
Keywords
- hospital protocols
- midwives
- UK
- social policy