Towards the Elaboration of a Non-Technical Skills Development Model for Midwives in Morocco

Abstract

This article explores the non-technical skills critical for the practice of midwives through a comparison of two maternity services in Morocco. Soft skills, or non-technical skills, present a set of metacognitive abilities, which complement hard or technical skills, in order to guarantee the safe performance of a technical activity. This exploration is based on an original methodology that triangulates observation of caring paths, qualitative interviews, and quantitative questionnaires. We identified the main soft skills mastered, those that were missing, and those to be developed, based on an observed or expressed need. The research population included 30 midwives and 70 women. The results led us to identify the most critical non-technical skills for midwifery practice at a Local Medical Centre (LMC) and a Provincial Hospital Centre (PHC) to better understand the effects of workload on the possibilities of activating non-technical skills during caring paths. Based on these results, we elaborated a model for the development and improvement of non-technical skills in midwifery.

Patients’ Safety and Its Relation to Non-technical Skills and Personality Traits among Nurses at Critical Care Units

“…Also, not only the technical skills but also nontechnical skills can cause errors for patients. Regarding the relation between patient safety and nontechnical skills, this finding was supported by Ghafili et al, (2022), who showed that the ability of midwifes to communicate clearly and calmly either with themselves or with women was considered important for ensuring patient well-being and safety of care. Additionally, Casali, Lock & Novoa, (2021) 2019) who revealed a strong association between conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and neuroticism with nurses' level of responsibility and their ability to look after their patients which in turns contributes to their safety.…”

“…Nurses' non-technical skills minimize the incidence of adverse events, increase the ability to work as a team, and drives toward the best practice (Ragni & Oxtoby, 2015). When the person has more non-technical skills, it is expected to have a strong personality to deal with learning process, work and other life challenges (Ghafili, et al, 2022). Also, nurses, personality traits can affect their workplace behaviors and lead to greater patient safety (Chang, et al, 2016).…”

“…Similarly these findings were incongruent with White (2012), who indicated that the of the surgery was related to lack of communication and team coordination. Also, Ghafili et al, (2022) found that the midwives had a lack of several of soft skills such as teamwork, acceptance of criticism and conflict management at their departments. In addition, Casali, Lock & Novoa, (2021) indicated that healthcare incidents were due to failure in non-technical skills and the system complexity and not to the lack of technical skills among healthcare professionals.…”

“…This result was inconsistent with Elmohmady, Abo Gad and Ramadan (2020) who showed that less than two thirds of studied sample of nurses had a satisfactory level in their non-technical skills. Similarly, Ghafili et al, (2022) added that there was a decrease in the nontechnical skills ( coordination and organization of the team, calm communication, involvement of the women and their partners in both care and decision making and in the skills related to the respect of intimacy) among the midwives in Morocco. Results of the current study revealed that, nearly half of the studied sample was extroverts; the majority of them had strong conscientiousness, openness to experience, and agreeableness…”