Advancing Practice 3: Changing worldviews: How can a Systems Approach Support Midwifery and Maternity care?

This is the third of four co-written papers for the Advancing Practice series. In our first paper we explored patient safety in maternity and midwifery care. Next, we discussed ‘Human Factors and Ergonomics’ within healthcare. Here we discuss healthcare systems and explore the “systems approach” in relation to recent developments in national patient safety? strategy. The reflection points throughout this Advancing Practice piece are adapted from the NHS Education for Scotland’s Safety Culture Discussion Cards (ref). In this series, we hope to support midwives’ understanding of the current maternity safety landscape.