Change is never easy. It is facilitated by a clear vision from top to bottom.
Several of the powerful Generation X nurses were enrolled in graduate programs to become nurse practitioners. Despite encouragement from me, not a single one planned on specializing in women’s health or neonatal care. The local college offered a course in family practice and doing anything else was deemed “too hard.” They all planned to leave the FBC when they finished school. As those positions open up, they will be filled by a new generation of labor nurses who are being trained by the few remaining Baby Boomers. Several of those new nurses have long-term goals that include midwifery education, certification as childbirth educators, and having their own birth experiences. Generational conflict may be inevitable, but I see light at the end of the tunnel for childbearing families.
REFLECTING ON MARILYN'S EXPERIENCE
Marilyn’s insights provide some new ways of looking at the challenges of changing the culture of birth. Although it is always dangerous to generalize, the generational characteristics of nurses can help us understand just how complex implementing change can be. Marilyn’s experience suggests that generational differences did influence, to some extent, the culture of the unit, including the embracing of the 12-hour shift.
Generation Y nurses are better educated than the nurses who came before them and this will influence, I believe, nurses’ commitment to providing evidence-based care and advocating in powerful ways for their patients. Baccalaureate nursing programs emphasize research and evidence-based practice. It is not surprising, therefore, that the younger, better-educated nurses on Marilyn’s unit appreciated the Baby Boomers (whose practices we now know are indeed evidence-based). Like those older nurses, the younger nurses trusted birth. The novice nurses will require the support of like-minded nurses including the solid, relentless support of nursing leadership on the maternity unit and high-level nursing administrators.
Bingham and Main (2010) identify that knowledge, attitude, and practice are important barriers to implementing change in maternity units. Leaders and clinicians, not just nurses but physicians, must be knowledgeable about best practices, but that alone does not change beliefs and attitudes or practice. The more entrenched and comfortable for the clinicians the usual ways of doing things are, the more difficult it is to change. Marilyn’s experience suggests that all three areas were problems.
What was also missing was strong leadership from the top. Without that support, it is extremely difficult to persuade staff nurses to think differently about birth and to do the hard work of changing practice. There needs to be an expectation that practice, supported by policies and protocols, will reflect best evidence. This takes time and commitment not just from the nurses at the bedside but from nursing managers and senior leadership. Without the expectation from the top, the nurse at the bedside may be reluctant to change and reluctant to “rock the boat,” and with good reason.
Change is never easy. It is facilitated by a clear vision from top to bottom.Several of the powerful Generation X nurses were enrolled in graduate programs to become nurse practitioners. Despite encouragement from me, not a single one planned on specializing in women’s health or neonatal care. The local college offered a course in family practice and doing anything else was deemed “too hard.” They all planned to leave the FBC when they finished school. As those positions open up, they will be filled by a new generation of labor nurses who are being trained by the few remaining Baby Boomers. Several of those new nurses have long-term goals that include midwifery education, certification as childbirth educators, and having their own birth experiences. Generational conflict may be inevitable, but I see light at the end of the tunnel for childbearing families.REFLECTING ON MARILYN'S EXPERIENCEMarilyn’s insights provide some new ways of looking at the challenges of changing the culture of birth. Although it is always dangerous to generalize, the generational characteristics of nurses can help us understand just how complex implementing change can be. Marilyn’s experience suggests that generational differences did influence, to some extent, the culture of the unit, including the embracing of the 12-hour shift.Generation Y nurses are better educated than the nurses who came before them and this will influence, I believe, nurses’ commitment to providing evidence-based care and advocating in powerful ways for their patients. Baccalaureate nursing programs emphasize research and evidence-based practice. It is not surprising, therefore, that the younger, better-educated nurses on Marilyn’s unit appreciated the Baby Boomers (whose practices we now know are indeed evidence-based). Like those older nurses, the younger nurses trusted birth. The novice nurses will require the support of like-minded nurses including the solid, relentless support of nursing leadership on the maternity unit and high-level nursing administrators.Bingham and Main (2010) identify that knowledge, attitude, and practice are important barriers to implementing change in maternity units. Leaders and clinicians, not just nurses but physicians, must be knowledgeable about best practices, but that alone does not change beliefs and attitudes or practice. The more entrenched and comfortable for the clinicians the usual ways of doing things are, the more difficult it is to change. Marilyn’s experience suggests that all three areas were problems.What was also missing was strong leadership from the top. Without that support, it is extremely difficult to persuade staff nurses to think differently about birth and to do the hard work of changing practice. There needs to be an expectation that practice, supported by policies and protocols, will reflect best evidence. This takes time and commitment not just from the nurses at the bedside but from nursing managers and senior leadership. Without the expectation from the top, the nurse at the bedside may be reluctant to change and reluctant to “rock the boat,” and with good reason.
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