School of Nursing & Midwifery, Queen's University Belfast Medical Biology Centre, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 7BL, UK.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2012 Dec 7;12:142. doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-12-142.
Current national and international maternity policy supports the importance of addressing public health goals and investing in early years. Health care providers for women during the reproductive and early postnatal period have the opportunity to encourage women to make choices that will impact positively on maternal and fetal health. Midwives are in a unique position, given the emphasis of the philosophy of midwifery care on building relationships and incorporating a holistic approach, to support women to make healthy choices with the aim of promoting health and preventing ill health. However, exploration of the educational preparation of midwives to facilitate public health interventions has been relatively limited. The aim of the study was to identify the scope of current midwifery pre registration educational provision in relation to public health and to explore the perspectives of midwives and midwifery students about the public health role of the midwife.
This was a mixed methods study incorporating a survey of Higher Educational Institutions providing pre registration midwifery education across the UK and focus groups with midwifery students and registered midwives.
Twenty nine institutions (53% response) participated in the survey and nine focus groups were conducted (59 participants). Public health education was generally integrated into pre registration midwifery curricula as opposed to taught as a discrete subject. There was considerable variation in the provision of public health topics within midwifery curricula and the hours of teaching allocated to them. Focus group data indicated that it was consistently difficult for both midwifery students and midwives to articulate clearly their understanding and definition of public health in relation to midwifery.
There is a unique opportunity to impact on maternal and infant health throughout the reproductive period; however the current approach to public health within midwifery education should be reviewed to capitalise on the role of the midwife in delivering public health interventions. It is clear that better understanding of midwifery public health roles and the visibility of public health within midwifery is required in order to maximise the potential contribution of midwives to achieving short and long term public health population goals.
当前的国家和国际产妇政策强调了实现公共卫生目标和投资于早期的重要性。女性在生殖和产后早期的医疗保健提供者有机会鼓励女性做出积极影响母婴健康的选择。鉴于助产护理哲学强调建立关系和采用整体方法，助产士处于独特的地位，可以支持女性做出健康选择，以促进健康和预防疾病。然而，探索助产士进行公共卫生干预的教育准备相对有限。本研究的目的是确定与公共卫生相关的当前助产士预注册教育的范围，并探讨助产士和助产士学生对助产士公共卫生角色的看法。
这是一项混合方法研究，包括对英国提供预注册助产教育的高等教育机构进行调查，以及对助产士学生和注册助产士进行焦点小组讨论。
29 个机构（53%的回应率）参与了调查，进行了 9 个焦点小组（59 名参与者）。公共卫生教育通常被整合到预注册助产课程中，而不是作为一门独立的学科进行教学。助产课程中公共卫生主题的提供和分配的教学时间存在很大差异。焦点小组数据表明，助产士学生和助产士都很难清楚地表达他们对与助产相关的公共卫生的理解和定义。
这是一个在整个生殖期对母婴健康产生影响的独特机会；然而，应该审查当前助产教育中的公共卫生方法，以利用助产士在提供公共卫生干预方面的作用。显然，需要更好地了解助产士公共卫生角色，并在助产士中提高公共卫生的可见度，以最大限度地发挥助产士在实现短期和长期公共卫生人口目标方面的潜力。
