Through the resident lens: examining knowledge and attitudes about midwifery among physician trainees.

Abstract

Interprofessional collaboration optimizes maternal-newborn outcomes and satisfaction with care. Since 2002, midwives have provided an increasing proportion of maternity care in British Columbia (BC). Midwives often collaborate with and/or refer to physicians; but no study to date has explored Canadian medical trainees' exposure to, knowledge of, and attitudes towards midwifery practice.We designed an online cross-sectional questionnaire that included a scale to measure attitudes towards midwifery (13 items) and residents' knowledge of midwifery (94 items across 5 domains). A multi-disciplinary expert panel rated each item for importance, relevance, and clarity. The survey was distributed to family medicine (n = 338) and obstetric (n = 40) residents in BC.We analyzed responses from 114 residents. Residents with more favourable exposures to midwifery during their education had significantly more positive attitudes towards midwives (r_s = 0.32, p = 0.007). We also found a significant positive correlation between residents' attitudes towards midwifery and four of five knowledge domains: scope of practice (r_s = 0.41, p < 0.001); content of education (r_s = 0.30, p = 0.002), equipment midwives carry to home births (r_s = 0.30, p = 0.004) and tests that midwives can order (r_s = 0.39, p < 0.001). The most unfavourable exposures were observing interprofessional conversations (66.2%), and providing inpatient consultations for midwives (61.4%). Findings suggest increased interprofessional education may foster improved midwife-physician collaboration.Abbreviations: BC - British Columbia; UBC - University of British Columbia.