Midwives' evaluation of their role in crowdsourcing activities to improve the maternity experience: part 2

Background Although all members of staff can be involved in improving the quality of maternity services, midwives can identify areas in need of improvement through their relationships with women and their families, and can influence care through activities such as crowdsourcing. Aims A service evaluation was undertaken to explore how midwives who attended the workshop viewed their involvement in crowdsourcing, and to examine whether midwives who attended the workshop considered themselves as agents of change for quality improvement in maternity care. Methods A generic qualitative approach was selected. Data were collected using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with six midwives who attended the workshop. Findings Four key themes emerged from analysing the data: improving communication, experiencing different perspectives, shared learning, and positivity. Conclusions Involving stakeholders as a ‘crowd’ to find solutions to problems in care is successful and highly rewarding. Midwife participants took pride in sharing their ideas for improvement. This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Midwives’ evaluation of their role in crowdsourcing activities to improve the maternity experience: Part 2, copyright © MA Healthcare, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/full/10.12968/bjom.2019.27.7.420