Contextual factors identified as influencing the implementation of the national midwifery education programme of midwifery educators and the future NPMs in India were sorted into two generic categories with respective subcategories. For an overview, see Table 2.
Table 2. Generic categories and subcategories describing contextual factors related to the education programme of midwifery educators and the future NPMs in India.
Generic Category
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Subcategory
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Organisation and administrative processes are complex
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Guidance by the task forces at the national, state and district level is needed
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Utilizing the existing nursing workforce strains the health system
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Defined selection and admission criteria exist
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Support from international experts to train midwifery educators is needed
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The production of midwifery educators and NPMs needs to be fast tracked
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Education institutions need to ensure high-quality education
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Curricula informed by international norms are ready to be implemented
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Theoretical learning needs to be integrated into clinical practice
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A framework for legislation and regulation needs to be in place
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Organisation and administrative processes are complex
Guidance by the task forces at the national, state and district level is needed
The implementation of a new midwifery education programme was told it will need guidance by the newly formed task force at the national level. Task forces are in the inception phase for state and district levels. The state-level task forces will take the form of action groups. Task forces will consist of a variety of stakeholders, such as the Central and the State Government ministries, nursing councils at national and state levels, teaching institutes, development partners, non-governmental organisations, professional organisations, health care managers, and other experts in midwifery. The key purpose of these groups is to steer the education and clinical midwifery practice. For example, the national task force will be responsible for the implementation of all midwifery services in the country. The responsibility of the state midwifery task forces will be midwifery education and care provision in their respective states. Once in place the district-level midwifery action groups will be more action oriented compared to the national- and state-level groups.
We are part of the national task force group who will meet and discuss what challenges there are concerning the initiative, but it is required to wait patiently for this to get running. The state task force has just been formed. (FGD 7)
Utilizing the existing nursing workforce strains the health system
A contextual factor identified as influencing the implementation of the education programme was the strain to the existing health system if the programme builds on utilizing the existing nurse-midwife workforce. Using the existing nurse-midwife workforce might drain the health system of nurses’ services and make the acute shortage of nurses in other departments an even bigger challenge for the health system. It was suggested that in parallel with the introduction of the NPM education programme, the current nurse-midwife education programme would need to be scaled up as well.
If we draw 90,000 nurse-midwives from the existing pool and train and retain them as NPMs only for maternity services, then how will the country meet the shortage of nurses? (FGD1)
Another stressor identified was that the most effective and ethical way of utilizing the existing nurse-midwives would be to ensure that talented nurse-midwives already practicing midwifery care could become the educators for the new NPM programme.
Selection and admission criteria exist
Another critical contextual factor was the selection and admission criteria for becoming an NPM educator or an NPM, specifically whether they were realistic or not in light of the expected future roles. The educators who will be trained are expected to have the capacity to deliver education in both theory and practice. In addition, they will also have to function as clinical supervisors at the midwife-led care units for the future NPMs. How these selected educators would be able to handle the expected burden of this position, bringing standards into practice, was recognized as a problem. Thus, cautiousness around the choice of who was to become such an educator was considered critically important. It was also recognized, however, that the qualities that made enthusiastic, highly motivated and high performing educators were difficult to capture in selection and admission criteria.
For the selection, I feel, we should have nurse-midwives who have at least a couple of years of clinical experience in managing births. If we pick fresh nurses, who have done only five births in their lives and then we train them and take them through the programme, how will they manage? We need to pick the right candidates and place them in the right place at the right level, and then we will see results. (FGD6)
Support from international experts to train midwifery educators is needed
Experienced international midwives from countries where midwifery care is established had been recruited to mentor and facilitate nurse-midwives in becoming midwifery educators. A critical argument for bringing international midwives to India was to introduce the midwifery philosophy, but it was still to be in line with the government’s guidelines and customized to the Indian population. These international midwives were to be instrumental as role models bringing about the shift in thinking from a medical model of care to a midwifery one. However, greater benefit would have accrued if the group of international experts had been better coordinated. One week of introduction had been provided to them; with a coordinator in place, however, the time to become culturally competent could be shortened.
…until India develops their own educators that understand midwifery, they will probably need that support because there is no role model to follow. The role models they have currently are obstetricians. So, if we are not careful, we will produce mini doctors and we will produce NPMs that are so good at following instructions but not following, you know, what the midwifery philosophy is. So, there is a danger of that happening. (FGD 2)
The suspension of the education programme during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the international midwife mentors had to return to their home countries, showed that relying on international experts has limitations. A suggestion was made to instead find and utilize those native Indian midwives, who were already educated and functioning as midwives elsewhere in India and in the world and who held at minimum a Master’s degree in midwifery. A more sustainable solution could be found by bringing back competence to India in this way.
The production of midwifery educators and NPMs needs to be fast tracked
Education Institutions need to ensure high-quality education
An overarching contextual factor raised was that to ensure high-quality education the institutes had to be suitable for delivering such education. Ingredients recognized as important for maintaining high-quality education were learning and teaching material, libraries, wi-fi, and simulation-based labs. Another critical factor was a quality assurance system to measure progress towards standards to ensure that the students obtained the competences required before graduating. Such a system is yet to be developed.
We are planning to do some quality control of all the National Midwifery Training Institutes to understand in what condition they are. And how the training is conducted at various sites, what the practical learning is, and what monitoring was put on hold because of the pandemic. (FGD5)
The participants explained that development partners had committed to support national training institutes and the set-up of midwifery-led care units at district and medical level hospitals, which will function as clinical practice sites for students.
Curricula informed by international norms are ready to be implemented
The curricula and syllabi were completed and ready to be implemented across the country. The documents initially prepared with support from the ICM had gone through further development by the Indian Nursing Council. The documents were considered to be good, but it was stressed that a lot of teaching and extensive learning by the students within a short period of time would be required. The curricula were considered short on sessions for simulation-based learning. That shortcoming will, together with an overambitious content, contribute to challenges that the educators will need to meet. The curricula were judged to have a risk- and medical-model approach for labour and birth. Given that the education will be in English, it was stressed that transferring all the content to the students would be a challenge.
So, if you look at, say, any 1 section, like say for antenatal care, you will have 1 hour of theory. And then you will have almost a textbook that is to be taught in that 1 hour. The question here is can you do justice to the subject? So we have been struggling and saying what is the most important thing that we know from global experience? What is it that a midwife really needs to do? What are the minimum essential competencies at the end of 6 months, when they go back to their respective states, that they are expected to have to establish a midwifery-led care unit. (FGD 3)
Theoretical learning needs to be integrated into clinical practice
Another contextual factor was that theoretical learning will need to be integrated into clinical practice sites, because theory needs to be applied in certain real-life situations such as the pregnancy and childbirth journey of a woman. This emphasis benefits students in their clinical learning, with acquired knowledge and skills related to respectful care, managing normal and complicated situations during pregnancy and childbirth, the ability to consult with the obstetrician or paediatrician when needed, that is, at the right time, and thinking critically and reflecting. In sum, what is required is to behave in such a way as to take the lead in a midwifery model of care unit.
If you look at any picture of midwifery-led care units, you will see alternate birthing positions being highlighted everywhere. You will have a ball, you will have a rope, you will have a birthing chair, you will have a mat, a colourful mat. So, it’s become the default setting of what midwives do. (FGD 2)
According to the participants, to become either an educator or an NPM, exposure to the full scope of midwifery practice, at all care levels, is needed, meaning labour and childbirth cannot be the only focus. Clinical practice sites must cover competences over the full range of sexual and reproductive health and rights practices, including family planning, post-abortion care, antenatal care, birth planning, and post-natal care.
A framework for legislation and regulation needs to be in place
A framework for legislation and regulation was yet to be put in place at the time of the FGDs. This framework was seen as crucial to implementing the new education programme if the new cadre were to function according to international norms. The National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Bill and the scope-of-practice documents for midwifery educators and NPMs have been circulated for comments from the nurse-midwives in India. To date this commentary process has not been completed. A separate licensure for NPMs is not yet in place; there was discussion as to whether this will happen or not as the licensure for NPMs could fall under the nursing-midwife licensure. The participants emphasised that after the NPM education programme starts, it will most likely be some time before the future NPMs can function autonomously, responsible for and taking the consequences of their performance, because obstetricians have the overall responsibility for pregnancy and childbirth care. On the one hand it was unclear whether or not the government was ready to let future NPMs practice on their own, instead of under the supervision of obstetricians. On the other hand, legislation and regulation allowing NPMs to practice on their own could secure the appropriate education environment to support the students learning the required skills.
Legislation and regulation could promote high standards, philosophy of care, standards for continuing training for licencing, mentoring and supervision. But such standards were currently not in place. (FGD 3)