Community engagement within an undergraduate nursing and midwifery course

Abstract

Malawi has a maternal mortality rate of 675/100 000 with 85% of the population living in rural areas. To reduced maternal mortality in Malawi, the government prioritised midwifery training. Therefore, a community midwifery module was developed by Kamuzu College of Nursing as part of their Bachelor of Science Nursing and Midwifery (BSCNM) programme. After clinical experience for this module, students presented reports on their experience and the problems facing eight peri-urban communities. This article describes aspects of this module, the activities the students engaged in, and problems the communities voiced. Their reports were subjected to basic content analysis and the following three themes were identified: ‘community use of reproductive health services’, ‘resources’ and ‘healthcare delivery systems’. This article focuses on the ‘community use of reproductive health services’ theme, and its three sub-themes (attitudes, knowledge and accessibility) in light of current research based in sub-Saharan Africa.