COVENTRY University has led the biggest ever international study into midwifery leadership.
Spearheaded by Dr Sally Pezaro from the university’s research centre for healthcare and communities, the study involved participants from 76 countries and was produced in conjunction with Nursing Now Challenge and Jhpiego – a global health non-profit and Johns Hopkins University.
The study identifies the ten leadership charactersitics that male for strong midwifery leaders.
Dr Sally Pezaro said: “Midwives make an incredible impact on people’s lives every day but sadly it is widely acknowledged that investment in midwifery leadership worldwide has been low.
“Strong leadership in healthcare leads to increased staff satisfaction, and improved safety cultures, but conversely weak leadership in midwifery has been linked to a range of negative outcomes.
“A lack of understanding of what strong leadership looks like in the context of midwifery has been a barrier, but we hope this study will help to address this issue.”
Dr Pezaro is a Fellow of the Royal College of Midwives (FRCM), a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and has experience working as a midwife clinically in the United Kingdom, Gambia and Ethiopia.
The study was supported by three recruitment webinars and a total of 429 midwives took part in the study.
It found that being able to mediate, resilience, empathy, compassion, and a dedication to the profession were among the 10 traits needed in successful midwife leaders.
Others included being an evidence-based practitioner, an effective decision maker, a role model, a visionary and an advocate for both the profession and service users.
The study also found seven enablers, which could help create environments for midwife leaders to flourish.
These include having a clear professional identity, ongoing research in the profession, succession planning and increasing the societal value placed upon midwifery.
