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Nurses’ Responses to Changes in Maternity Care, Part II. Technologic Revolution, Legal Climate, and Economic Changes
Author(s) -
Myers Sheila Taylor,
Stolte Karen
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
birth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.233
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1523-536X
pISSN - 0730-7659
DOI - 10.1111/j.1523-536x.1987.tb01459.x
Subject(s) - staffing , anger , nursing , lawsuit , anxiety , psychology , medicine , political science , social psychology , law , psychiatry
Nurses’ responses to changes in obstetric technology, the legal climate, and economic pressures in maternity care were collected by means of a five‐question, open‐ended interview from 59 nurses practicing in 10 hospitals in Oklahoma and Kansas. The method and sample are described in Part I of this article. Forty‐eight of the nurses said that technologic advances have reduced job stress, raised professional status, increased interdisciplinary contacts, and either raised or lowered workloads. Defensive use of procedures in obstetrics has increased the need for charting and many other nursing duties not related to caring for patients. At the same time, anxiety and anger at the idea of being vulnerable to lawsuit for years after each birth did negatively affect some nurses’ attitudes toward their jobs and their patients. Despite the need for greater vigilance and more procedures, nurse‐patient staffing ratios are dropping in some hospital maternity units, while nurses are expected to market hospital services and help develop innovative programs.