Perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital: A time-series analysis
Introduction: The chronic shortage of registered midwives and nurses is a serious global problem. However, current recommendations regarding midwifery staffing do not address operational staffing difficulties that arise from wide variations in care demand. The aim of this study was to describe shift...
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Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666142X25000098 |
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| author | Luisa C. Eggenschwiler Giusi Moffa Valerie Smith Michael Simon |
| author_facet | Luisa C. Eggenschwiler Giusi Moffa Valerie Smith Michael Simon |
| author_sort | Luisa C. Eggenschwiler |
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| description | Introduction: The chronic shortage of registered midwives and nurses is a serious global problem. However, current recommendations regarding midwifery staffing do not address operational staffing difficulties that arise from wide variations in care demand. The aim of this study was to describe shift-level care demand and available staffing resources in a tertiary hospital's maternity department. Methods: This single-centre retrospective longitudinal study investigated a four-year timeframe (2019–2022). All registered midwives and nurses working a three-shift pattern in the prenatal unit, labour ward, or postnatal unit were included. To determine care demand, we approached it in a novel way, accounting for both the number of women on each unit and each case's expected complexity. Any unmet care demand was calculated in relation to pre-specified nurse-to-patient ratios for each care area by subtracting demand hours from available staff hours per shift. Results: In total, 17,558 cases were included and 13,149 worked shifts analysed. The match of staffing resources with care demand was different for each analysed unit. In the prenatal and postnatal units, demand was generally met; however, the labour ward had a shortfall of at least one midwife on 32% of all shifts. Adjusted for care complexity, the deficiency prevalence rose to 55% of shifts for this ward. Conclusion: Alongside the inclusion of care complexity in assessing care demand, shift- and unit-level analyses showed that average staffing numbers obscure the actual volume of unmet care demand. Staffing in labour wards needs greater flexibility to cope with the clustering of births over short periods. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2666-142X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
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| series | International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances |
| spelling | doaj-art-c0bc54007709401a983449a004e3abbb2025-01-27T04:22:13ZengElsevierInternational Journal of Nursing Studies Advances2666-142X2025-06-018100299Perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital: A time-series analysisLuisa C. Eggenschwiler0Giusi Moffa1Valerie Smith2Michael Simon3Department Public Health (DPH), Institute of Nursing Science (INS), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Chief Medical and Nursing Office, University Hospital Basel, Basel, SwitzerlandDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Basel, Basel, SwitzerlandCollege of Health and Agricultural Sciences, School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Systems, University College Dublin, Belfield, IrelandDepartment Public Health (DPH), Institute of Nursing Science (INS), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Chief Medical and Nursing Office, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Corresponding author at: Institute of Nursing Science (INS), Bernoullistrasse 28, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.Introduction: The chronic shortage of registered midwives and nurses is a serious global problem. However, current recommendations regarding midwifery staffing do not address operational staffing difficulties that arise from wide variations in care demand. The aim of this study was to describe shift-level care demand and available staffing resources in a tertiary hospital's maternity department. Methods: This single-centre retrospective longitudinal study investigated a four-year timeframe (2019–2022). All registered midwives and nurses working a three-shift pattern in the prenatal unit, labour ward, or postnatal unit were included. To determine care demand, we approached it in a novel way, accounting for both the number of women on each unit and each case's expected complexity. Any unmet care demand was calculated in relation to pre-specified nurse-to-patient ratios for each care area by subtracting demand hours from available staff hours per shift. Results: In total, 17,558 cases were included and 13,149 worked shifts analysed. The match of staffing resources with care demand was different for each analysed unit. In the prenatal and postnatal units, demand was generally met; however, the labour ward had a shortfall of at least one midwife on 32% of all shifts. Adjusted for care complexity, the deficiency prevalence rose to 55% of shifts for this ward. Conclusion: Alongside the inclusion of care complexity in assessing care demand, shift- and unit-level analyses showed that average staffing numbers obscure the actual volume of unmet care demand. Staffing in labour wards needs greater flexibility to cope with the clustering of births over short periods.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666142X25000098Midwifery staffingNurse staffingWorkloadWorkforceElectronic health recordsRoutinely collected health data |
| spellingShingle | Luisa C. Eggenschwiler Giusi Moffa Valerie Smith Michael Simon Perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital: A time-series analysis International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances Midwifery staffing Nurse staffing Workload Workforce Electronic health records Routinely collected health data |
| title | Perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital: A time-series analysis |
| title_full | Perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital: A time-series analysis |
| title_fullStr | Perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital: A time-series analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital: A time-series analysis |
| title_short | Perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital: A time-series analysis |
| title_sort | perinatal midwifery care demand in a tertiary hospital a time series analysis |
| topic | Midwifery staffing Nurse staffing Workload Workforce Electronic health records Routinely collected health data |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666142X25000098 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT luisaceggenschwiler perinatalmidwiferycaredemandinatertiaryhospitalatimeseriesanalysis AT giusimoffa perinatalmidwiferycaredemandinatertiaryhospitalatimeseriesanalysis AT valeriesmith perinatalmidwiferycaredemandinatertiaryhospitalatimeseriesanalysis AT michaelsimon perinatalmidwiferycaredemandinatertiaryhospitalatimeseriesanalysis |