Professional Quality of Life and Associated Factors Among Ugandan Midwives Working in Mubende and Mityana Rural Districts.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the professional quality of life and associated factors among Ugandan midwives working in Mubende and Mityana rural district to recommend interventions to improve professional well-being and outcomes of midwifery care.

BACKGROUND

Professional quality of life of midwives working in rural areas may be influenced by several personal and work setting factors of care professionals often impacting the quality and outcomes of patient care.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from 224 midwives working in two rural districts of Uganda.

FINDINGS

The majority of participants were female (80 %), with an associate degree in midwifery (92 %). The mean age and years of experience were 34 ± 6.3 and 4 ± 2.1 years, respectively. The mean scores on the professional quality of life scale showed average compassionate satisfaction (19 ± 4.88), burnout (36.9 ± 6.22) and secondary traumatic stress (22.9 ± 6.69). The midwives' compassion satisfaction was related to psychological well-being (p < 0.01) and job satisfaction (p < 0.01). Conversely, their burnout levels and secondary traumatic stress were associated with education level (p < 0.01), marital status (p < 0.01), involvement in non-midwifery health care activities (p < 0.01), and physical well-being (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION TO PRACTICE: Midwives working in rural areas of resource-poor countries have moderate professional quality of life and tend to experience moderate to high levels of burnout, secondary traumatic stress and compassion satisfaction in their professional work. Therefore, employers need to provide deliberate work based services such as counselling, debriefing, training and social support to enhance midwives professional quality of life and quality of midwifery care and practice.