WORKING AS A COORDINATOR MIDWIFE IN A TERTIARY ...

carry a case load and offer bedside care whereas this research centered on nurse shift
leaders who did not carry a case load and seldom offered bedside nursing as part of their
role. Two major themes emerged from the study, which were the burden of responsibility
nurses carried and their strong desire to reach the end of their shift safely.
Nurses care for the unwell patient in the ward situation because there is risk. Midwives
care for two lives, one of which is unseen; there is the mother and her baby in utero.
There may be no apparent risk factors for the mother or her baby in her womb, however
there is always the “unknowness of the darkness” (Smythe, 2000, p19) which silently
prevails in childbirth. Herein lies the midwifery perspective about which Skinner (2007)
observes “in some essence, the midwife is there because there is risk. She provides care
both despite it and because of it” (p.161). In the study by Goldblatt et al., (2008) nurses
held concerns for themselves, which poses the question whether this study would reveal
similar themes for coordinators.
The question is also asked: “How do midwives working in this environment manage?”
What makes them want to come to work and how do they manage when they go home?
Resilience is defined by Edward (2005) as behaviour which “is a valued quality in
today’s stressful and changing health world” (p.147). In her research which addressed
resilience of mental health nurses working in crisis care, the implications of her study
findings identified resilience as an essential coping strategy which gave carers
“confidence in dealing with changes, reframing negative experiences into positive and
self enhancing ones and creating positive outcomes” (p.147). This was achieved through
49