An appreciative inquiry of remote and rural maternity care.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An appreciative inquiry of remote and rural maternity care drawing from the experiences of women, midwives and specialist GP’s.
IRAS ID
253811
Contact name
Annie Lau
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Robert Gordon University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 22 days
Research summary
This is a study which involves gaining the views and experiences of the positive elements from those who come into contact with maternity services and the providers of their care, midwives and rural hospital GP's a remote and rural area of the Scottish Highland. The study uses the appreciative inquiry, a method which allows a positive focus on the collective strengthens of an organization, to explore a future vision and sustainability for the service .
Data for this study will collected in two parts. The initial stage consists of one to one, face to face interviews using positively framed questions with women who have previously used the maternity services, midwives and rural hospital GP's. These interviews will allow personal stories, experiences and visions of an ideal maternity service to be explored. The data gathered from these interviews will generate common themes which will be used in the second and last stage of the study, a collaborative focus group of all the participants from the interview stage of the study. The focus group seeks to explore the the positive vision of the service and how its strengths can be taken forward, from the aspects of women and their midwives and the specialist GP's who support the service.
The findings from this study will be used to make recommendations for service improvements based on the lived experiences of women who use the service and the practitioners who provide maternity care. It will give a greater understanding of how maternity services work in these communities and what stakeholders value which can be fed back to policy makers. This study will also give direction to for the curriculum content to educators, which will potentially improve recuitment and retention in these areas.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/YH/0446
Date of REC Opinion
9 Nov 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion