Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2023 Apr 24;23(1):279. doi: 10.1186/s12884-023-05614-5.
In Australia, maternity care services provide care for pregnant and postpartum women and their newborns. The COVID-19 pandemic forced these services to quickly adapt and develop policies and procedures for dealing with transmission in health care facilities, as well as work under public health measures to counter its spread within the community. Despite well-documented responses and adaptations by healthcare systems, no studies have examined the experiences of maternity service leaders through the pandemic. This study aimed to explore the experiences of maternity service leaders, to understand their perspectives on what happened in health services and what was required of a leader during the COVID-19 pandemic in one Australian state.
A longitudinal qualitative study collected data from 11 maternity care leaders during the pandemic in the state of Victoria. Leaders participated in a series of interviews over the 16-month study period, with a total of 57 interviews conducted. An inductive approach to developing codes allowed for semantic coding of the data, then a thematic analysis was conducted to explore patterned meaning across the dataset.
One overarching theme, 'challenges of being a maternity service leader during the pandemic', encompassed participant's experiences. Four sub-themes described the experiences of these leaders: (1) needing to be a rapid decision-maker, (2) needing to adapt and alter services, (3) needing to filter and translate information, and (4) the need to support people. At the beginning of the pandemic, the challenges were most acute with slow guideline development, rapid communications from the government and an urgent need to keep patients and staff safe. Over time, with knowledge and experience, leaders were able to quickly adjust and respond to policy change.
Maternity service leaders played an important role in preparing and adapting services in accordance with government directives and guidelines while also developing strategies tailored to their own health service requirements. These experiences will be invaluable in designing high quality and responsive systems for maternity care in future crises.
在澳大利亚，产妇保健服务为孕妇、产后妇女及其新生儿提供保健服务。COVID-19 大流行迫使这些服务机构迅速调整并制定了在医疗机构中处理传播的政策和程序，以及在社区内实施公共卫生措施以遏制其传播的政策。尽管医疗系统有记录在案的应对和调整，但没有研究探讨产妇服务领导者在大流行期间的经历。本研究旨在探讨产妇服务领导者的经历，以了解他们对卫生服务中发生的事情的看法，以及在澳大利亚一个州 COVID-19 大流行期间领导者需要具备哪些能力。
一项纵向定性研究在维多利亚州的大流行期间从 11 名产妇保健服务领导者那里收集数据。领导者在 16 个月的研究期间参加了一系列访谈，共进行了 57 次访谈。采用一种归纳方法来开发代码，允许对数据进行语义编码，然后进行主题分析，以探索数据集内的模式意义。
一个总体主题，即“大流行期间作为产妇保健服务领导者的挑战”，包含了参与者的经历。四个子主题描述了这些领导者的经历：（1）需要成为一名快速决策者，（2）需要适应和改变服务，（3）需要筛选和翻译信息，以及（4）需要支持人员。在大流行开始时，指南制定缓慢、政府快速传达信息以及迫切需要保护患者和员工安全，这给领导者带来了最严峻的挑战。随着时间的推移，随着知识和经验的积累，领导者能够快速调整并对政策变化做出反应。
产妇保健服务领导者在根据政府指令和指南准备和调整服务方面发挥了重要作用，同时还制定了适合自己卫生服务需求的战略。这些经验对于未来危机中设计高质量和响应性的产妇保健系统将是非常宝贵的。
