Transformative Leadership, the Empowerment of Midwives
“The goal is to ensure that every service manager can be an agent of transformative leadership in the area of their work,” Ruth Maithya, a Nurse/Midwife Trainer at Amref Health Africa, told the participants at a stakeholder roundtable celebrating the training of 50 midwifes in five countries in the new Certificate Course for Leadership, Management, and Governance.
Working in close partnership with Amref Health Africa, the Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) project worked with midwives in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda on a practical, experiential-learning approach to prioritized skills including: team work and communication, advocacy, coaching and mentoring, database management and decision making, change management, and strategic problem solving process.
At the roundtable on July 10th in Nairobi, five of the midwives trained and two of the trainers representing all five countries shared their stories on how the training has impacted them with stakeholders from the Kenya Ministry of Health, the Nursing Council of Kenya, Nurses Association of Kenya, and the Confederation of African Midwives Associations. Each of the midwives faced different challenges and used their training to address them.
Linvell Nkhoma, a midwife manager in Malawi, explained how she’s been using managerial skills to help ease overcrowding in the maternity ward at the regional hospital where she works. “We have limited space, only three delivery beds for 400 deliveries a month. This program has taught me to prioritize and mobilize resources. We have now shifted mothers that will have C-sections to a different ward, so there are more beds available in the delivery ward.”
At her hospital in Tanzania, midwife Sophia Mchinjita used the new skills from the training to solve a human resources problem. The lack of adequate nursing staff prompted her to recommend two shifts instead of three shifts to have more people on duty. “It only required staff to stay two additional hours and improved patient coverage,” she said.
The course has helped expand solutions and options for the midwife participants and Agnes Masawe, a trainer in Tanzania, explained how . “Sometimes you don’t need money, you need your mouth. You need to lobby, communicate, and demand resources. Sometimes you think you need to talk to people in the capital city, but you can mobilize in the community. You can do things yourself, not wait on the decision-makers.”
Florence A’teng, a midwife manager in Tanzania, agreed, “There is a funding ceiling given by the Minister of Health that you have to plan within and it is very small. You have to work around the budget constraints.”
National stakeholders in attendance were impressed by the midwives’ stories. Luisa Muteti, Chairperson of the Confederation of African Midwives Associations, Kenya Chapter, said “This project is a spring board to help us integrate what we know about leadership, management, and governance to midwife training.”
Mercy Kasina, Department of Nursing of Kenya’s Ministry of Health, stressed that midwife leaders are vital to making positive health gains. “If we reach a high level of midwifes at a managerial and leadership level, it will be much easier to reach health campaign goals and commitments.”
“Midwives: Leading the Community to Better Health” Panel Participants:
- Florence Ateng, Midwife, Uganda
- Wambua Kisilu, Trainer, Kenya
- Agnes Masawe, Trainer, Tanzania
- Sophia Mchinjita, Midwife, Tanzania
- Hewan Berhanu Mohammed, Midwife, Ethiopia
- Linvell Nkhoma, Midwife, Malawi
- Lawrenzia Njoki, Midwife, Kenya
- Micah Matiang’I, Amref Health Africa, Moderator
- Belkis Giorgis, Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) Project, Moderator
Date Published
- September 2017 (2)
- August 2017 (3)
- July 2017 (4)
- June 2017 (2)
- May 2017 (2)
- April 2017 (4)
- March 2017 (2)
- January 2017 (2)
- December 2016 (2)
- November 2016 (2)
- October 2016 (5)
- September 2016 (3)
- July 2016 (5)
- June 2016 (4)
- May 2016 (3)
- April 2016 (2)
- March 2016 (3)
- February 2016 (6)
- January 2016 (6)
- December 2015 (7)
- November 2015 (9)
- October 2015 (8)
- September 2015 (6)
- August 2015 (4)
- July 2015 (7)
- June 2015 (12)
- May 2015 (16)
- April 2015 (10)
- March 2015 (7)
- February 2015 (2)
- January 2015 (2)
- December 2014 (4)
- November 2014 (1)
- October 2014 (14)
- September 2014 (7)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (1)
- June 2014 (4)
- May 2014 (13)
- April 2014 (4)
- March 2014 (2)
- February 2014 (3)
- January 2014 (3)
- December 2013 (3)
- November 2013 (16)
- October 2013 (5)
- September 2013 (5)
- August 2013 (5)
- July 2013 (4)
- June 2013 (6)
- May 2013 (12)