scholarly journals Safe Deliveries?: a Review of New Zealand's Midwifery Regulation through the Lens of the Health and Disability Commissioner

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Claire Sweetman
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Maternity Care ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Disability Services ◽  
Birth Experience ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Quality Healthcare ◽  
Fundamental Part ◽  
Main Consumer ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth

<p>Although birth is a fundamental part of the life process, competing factions within the health profession struggle to agree on the best way to deliver maternity services. Despite this long-standing tension, the midwifery-led model has dominated New Zealand’s maternity system for more than two decades with the majority of consumers expressing satisfaction with the care provided. Unfortunately for a small number of mothers and babies the pregnancy and birth experience is not a positive one and families are left suffering life-long, and often tragic, consequences. As one of the main consumer watchdogs in New Zealand, the Health and Disability Commissioner is charged with investigating claims of poor quality healthcare. This paper examines the central themes in the Commissioner’s reports on substandard midwifery practice and proposes a number of regulatory solutions to the issues involved. Working in unison, these amendments have the potential to ease the pressure placed on midwives; enhance interprofessional relationships; improve practitioner competence; and increase overall compliance with the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights. By implementing these changes, the New Zealand Government could safeguard valuable midwifery-based principles whilst still ensuring that high quality maternity care is provided to all of the country’s mothers and babies.</p>

scholarly journals Safe Deliveries?: a Review of New Zealand's Midwifery Regulation through the Lens of the Health and Disability Commissioner

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Claire Sweetman
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Maternity Care ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Disability Services ◽  
Birth Experience ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Quality Healthcare ◽  
Fundamental Part ◽  
Main Consumer ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth

<p>Although birth is a fundamental part of the life process, competing factions within the health profession struggle to agree on the best way to deliver maternity services. Despite this long-standing tension, the midwifery-led model has dominated New Zealand’s maternity system for more than two decades with the majority of consumers expressing satisfaction with the care provided. Unfortunately for a small number of mothers and babies the pregnancy and birth experience is not a positive one and families are left suffering life-long, and often tragic, consequences. As one of the main consumer watchdogs in New Zealand, the Health and Disability Commissioner is charged with investigating claims of poor quality healthcare. This paper examines the central themes in the Commissioner’s reports on substandard midwifery practice and proposes a number of regulatory solutions to the issues involved. Working in unison, these amendments have the potential to ease the pressure placed on midwives; enhance interprofessional relationships; improve practitioner competence; and increase overall compliance with the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights. By implementing these changes, the New Zealand Government could safeguard valuable midwifery-based principles whilst still ensuring that high quality maternity care is provided to all of the country’s mothers and babies.</p>

Removing Barriers to Partnerships

1988 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-29
Author(s):  
Sandra Gill
Keyword(s):  
Delivery System ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Medical Staff ◽  
Professional Autonomy ◽  
Team Approach ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Quality Healthcare ◽  
Complicated Process

One of the six corollaries to high quality healthcare identified in a 1987 study indicated that a team approach is required, although it challenges the notion of the professional autonomy of the medical staff. There are both individual and delivery system barriers to formation of partnerships and resistance to the change process. Combined with different views between physicians and executives, partnership building is a complicated process, and a number of recommendations are suggested to promote better relationships.

The Ethics of Mobile Health Technology

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S39-S39
Author(s):  
S. Galderisi ◽  
F. Caputo
Keyword(s):  
Health Equity ◽  
Mobile Health ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Ethical Guidelines ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Quality Healthcare ◽  
Health Technologies

IntroductionMobile health (m-health) technology has been growing rapidly in the last decades. The use of this technology represents an advantage, especially for reaching patients who otherwise would have no access to healthcare. However, many ethical issues arise from the use of m-health. Health equity, privacy policies, adequate informed consent and a competent, safe and high quality healthcare need to be guaranteed; professional standards and quality of doctor-patient relationship in the digital setting should not be lower than those set for in-person practice.AimsTo assess advantages and threats that may arise from the wide use of m-health technologies, in order to guarantee the application of the best medical practices, resulting in the highest quality healthcare.MethodsA literature search has been conducted to highlight the most pressing ethical issues emerging from the spreading of m-health technologies.ResultsFew ethical guidelines on the appropriate use of m-health have been developed to help clinicians adopt a professional conduct within digital settings. They focus on the need for professional associations to define ethical guidelines and for physicians to take care of their education and online behavior when using m-health technologies.ConclusionsThe rapid spreading of m-health technologies urges us to evaluate all ethical issues related to its use. It would be advisable to produce an ethical code for the use of these new technologies, to guarantee health equity, privacy protection, high quality doctor-patient relationships and to ensure that m-health is not chosen over traditional care for merely economic purposes.Disclosure of interestSG received honoraria or Advisory board/consulting fees from the following companies: Lundbeck, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Hoffman-La Roche, Angelini-Acraf, Otsuka, Pierre Fabre and Gedeon-Richter. All other authors have declared.

scholarly journals Simple and efficient modifications of well known techniques for reliable growth of high-quality crystals of small bioorganic molecules

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1435-1442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis A. Rychkov ◽  
Sergey G. Arkhipov ◽  
Elena V. Boldyreva
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Organic Molecules ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Chemical Degradation ◽  
School Level ◽  
Chemistry Curriculum ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Small Organic Molecules ◽  
Secondary School Level

A number of modifications to traditional techniques are suggested in order to overcome problems that frequently arise when growing crystals from solution. These improvements, and their combination, help to avoid problems such as poor nucleation, the spontaneous precipitation of many poor-quality small powder-like crystals, crystals adhering to the crystallization vessel or to each other, and chemical degradation of the solution. The proposed techniques can be used to crystallize desirable metastable polymorphs reliably. None of the suggested methods demands the usage of any special or expensive equipment, or specific skills, and they can be implemented in the chemistry curriculum even at secondary school level. Examples are given for the crystallization of small organic molecules such as carboxylic acids, amino acids, pharmaceuticals etc., but the same techniques are applicable to other classes of compound.

scholarly journals R factors in Rietveld analysis: How good is good enough?

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian H. Toby
Keyword(s):  
Rietveld Analysis ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Data ◽  
Poor Quality Data ◽  
Error Index ◽  
R Factors ◽  
Very High

The definitions for important Rietveld error indices are defined and discussed. It is shown that while smaller error index values indicate a better fit of a model to the data, wrong models with poor quality data may exhibit smaller values error index values than some superb models with very high quality data.

scholarly journals The case for an ?Excellence in Scholarship for Australia? initiative

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Calver
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Research Quality ◽  
Research Assessment ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Quality Research

Only those truly cryptozoic for all of 2010 could have missed the bustle and concern created by the Australian Commonwealth?s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative (http://www.arc.gov.au/era/default.htm). In common with other national research assessment exercises such as the RAE (UK) and PBRF (New Zealand), ERA is designed to assess research quality within the Australian higher education sector, identifying and rewarding those institutions and departments producing high-quality research. The linkages between achievement, recognition and reward have the potential to shape the research priorities and agendas of institutions and individual researchers.

scholarly journals Empowering conservation practice with efficient and economical genotyping from poor quality samples

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghana Natesh ◽  
Ryan W. Taylor ◽  
Nathan Truelove ◽  
Elizabeth A. Hadly ◽  
Stephen Palumbi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
List Type ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Conservation Practice ◽  
Queen Conch ◽  
Close Relatives

AbstractModerate to high density genotyping (100+ SNPs) is widely used to determine and measure individual identity, relatedness, fitness, population structure and migration in wild populations.However, these important tools are difficult to apply when high-quality genetic material is unavailable. Most genomic tools are developed for high quality DNA sources from labor medical settings. As a result, most genetic data from market or field settings is limited to easily amplified mitochondrial DNA or a few microsatellites.To enable genotyping in conservation contexts, we used next-generation sequencing of multiplex PCR products from very low-quality DNA extracted from feces, hair, and cooked samples. We demonstrated utility and wide-ranging potential application in endangered wild tigers and tracking commercial trade in Caribbean queen conch.We genotyped 100 SNPs from degraded tiger samples to identify individuals, discern close relatives, and detect population differentiation. Co-occurring carnivores do not amplify (e.g. Indian wild dog/Dhole) or are monomorphic (e.g. leopard). 62 SNPs from conch fritters and field-collected samples were used to test relatedness and detect population structure.We provide proof-of-concept for a rapid, simple, cost-effective, and scalable method (for both samples and number of loci), a framework that can be applied to other conservation scenarios previously limited by low quality DNA samples. These approaches provide a critical advance for wildlife monitoring and forensics, open the door to field-ready testing, and will strengthen the use of science in policy decisions and wildlife trade.

scholarly journals Newspaper quality, content and competition in New Zealand

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
High Quality

Content analysis results show that investment strategies and newspaper quality vary between companies in New Zealand. Indeed, Allied Press’ Otago Daily Times prints considerably more news than Fairfax papers with similar circulations, and almost as much news as the Christchurch Press. The results also provide some support for the theory that produc­ing a relatively high quality newspaper, when quality is measured by the quantity of news published and number of journalists employed, is as­sociated with relatively high readership. Vigorous competition between companies for dominance in the Queenstown newspaper market suggests that less concentrated newspaper ownership could increase competition and benefit consumers in other parts of New Zealand. Although the results are from 2006, strong similarities between the newspapers surveyed and more recent issues of these titles means the results and policy lessons drawn are still relevant.

scholarly journals Promoting positive interactions between midwives and obstetricians at the primary/secondary interface

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 41-48
Author(s):  
Rachel Cassie ◽  
Christine Griffiths ◽  
George Parker
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Maternity Care ◽  
Interprofessional Collaboration ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Health Board ◽  
District Health ◽  
Interprofessional Communication ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand

Background: Interprofessional communication is a critical component of safe maternity care. The literature reports circumstances in Aotearoa New Zealand and overseas when interprofessional collaboration works well between midwives and obstetricians, as well as descriptions of unsatisfactory communication between the two professions. Aim: To explore and define effective collaboration between midwives and obstetricians at the primary/secondary interface in maternity care, in order to generate suggestions to foster positive collaboration. Method: Eight primary care midwives, three obstetricians and two obstetric registrars from a single District Health Board in Aotearoa New Zealand were interviewed about their interactions at the primary/secondary interface and their understanding, and use, of the Referral Guidelines. The theoretical perspective was Appreciative Inquiry. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Results indicate usually positive interprofessional interactions. Dominant emergent themes are the need to negotiate differing philosophies, to clarify blurred boundaries that sometimes lead to lack of clear lines of responsibility, and the importance of three-way conversations. Of the three themes, this article focuses on three-way communication between midwife, obstetrician/registrar and woman. Participants reported that, when effective three-way communication between woman, midwife and obstetrician occurred, philosophical difference could be negotiated, blurred boundaries clarified and understanding of the respective roles of the LMC midwife and the obstetric team promoted. Participants value the Referral Guidelines but report some limitations to their applicability. Conclusion: Effective three-way communication promotes good maternity care. This study has identified ways to support optimal communication.

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