Research projects in CompMid
This project includes five work packages.
Work package 1: Norwegian midwife students’ clinical competence at graduation and midwifery empowerment and burnout one year later
Work package leader: Marianne Lønnebotn
PhD-student: Under recruitment
Senior professor: Anne Kaasen, OsloMet
Objectives to investigate:
- Midwife students’ experience on how Norwegian midwifery education has prepared them for clinical practice and to identify competencies that students find themselves not competent enough to manage independently at graduation.
- Associations between midwife students’ self-reported clinical competence at graduation and midwifery empowerment one year after.
- Associations between midwife students’ self-reported clinical competence at graduation and burnout one year after.
A national open cohort study with midwife students at graduation (≈150 yearly)
Work package 2: Midwives’ work-related intentions, midwifery empowerment, burnout and risk factors for leaving work
Work package leader: Professor Eline Skirnisdottir Vik
PhD-student: Elisabeth Hemnes Aanensen
Senior professor: Anette Harris, University of Bergen
The objectives are to investigate:
- Norwegian midwives’ work-related intentions and reasons to remain, leave or to return to clinical positions.
- Risk factors for leaving or having strong intentions to leave a midwife position in Norwegian maternity care 18 months later.
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A national Norwegian cohort study with questionnaires to all midwives in Norway, both those working in clinical positions and those who have left. Data collection will take place in spring 2025, spring 2026 and spring 2028.
Work package 3: Midwives’ shift work, work-related experiences, and sickness absence in Norway
Work package leader: Linn Marie Sørbye
PhD-student: Under recruitment
Senior professor: Anette Harris, University of Bergen
Objectives to investigate:
- Sickness absence in Norwegian midwives in relation to shift schedule characteristics, employment percentage, time in current workplace, and hospital size and location.
- Self-reported sickness absence in Norwegian midwives in relation to socioeconomic background, work-related intentions, midwifery empowerment and
- Societal costs for sickness absence in Norwegian midwives.
Study 1+3: Register data from the Norwegian Working hour Registry for workers at Hospitals (NWRH) based on detailed payroll data from Norwegian hospitals.
Study 2: A national Norwegian cohort study with questionnaires to all midwives in Norway, both those working in clinical positions and those who have left. Data collection will take place in spring 2025, spring 2026 and spring 2028.
Work package 4: Design, development and evaluation of new technologies to improve midwives’ and midwife students’ clinical competence
Work package leader Ass professor: Katrine Aasekjær
PhD students: Under recruitment
Senior professor: Klas Karlgren, Karolinska Institutet
Project members and collaborations
Professor: Ilona Heldal
Professor: Yngve Lamo
Objectives to investigate:
- To design, develop and evaluate student-activating and collaborative digital learning tools to improve midwife students’ competence in taking timely and adequate decisions (competencies identified in WP1) prior to the final practice placement and at graduation.
- To evaluate the digital learning tools to improve midwives’ clinical competence (identified in WP2).
- To assess the hypothesised mechanisms of impact of the intervention and contextual factors for further development of the intervention.
Work package 5: How a sustainable and clinically competent workforce of midwives can be ensured in Norwegian labor and postpartum wards
Objective:
To explore how a sustainable and clinically competent workforce of midwives can be ensured in Norwegian labour and postpartum wards.
Qualitative study with focus group discussions with midwives, leaders, economists, politicians and other stakeholders in the Norwegian health regions based on findings from WP1+2+3.