My leadership elective placement with MBRRACE-UK: advancing clinical practice
- Palmer, Selena
Author
Selena Palmer, MSci Midwifery with Leadership; Registered Midwife, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, UK. Email:[email protected]
For more information on this topic see MIC database Search Packs: M26 Student midwives; M77 Leadership; M24 Research: the value of; M25 Research: how to do it.
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Abstract
Following my recent completion of the four-year undergraduate Master in Science (MSci) Midwifery with Leadership degree at the University of Leicester, I have had the opportunity to reflect on my leadership elective placement with the Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audit and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) team. This placement occurred during the third year of the programme and has significantly influenced my future career interests in midwifery. This reflective account captures the process of MBRRACE-UK report formation, alongside valuable insight and learning opportunities from the experiences that shaped my clinical and professional practice in my journey as a student midwife.
Background
During my four-year undergraduate MSci Midwifery with Leadership degree at the University of Leicester, I was particularly interested in improving care outcomes for all women, especially those from global majority backgrounds. These women face higher risks of mortality during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, as well as often experiencing a lower standard of care compared to their White counterparts (, ). My involvement in the development of the Royal College of Midwives' (RCM) Decolonising midwifery education toolkit () and the University of Leicester School of Healthcare's equality, diversity and inclusion committee further fuelled my passion in research aimed at driving meaningful change. With a strong interest in research and the support of my personal tutor Professor Jayne Marshall and her networking connections, I secured a leadership elective placement with MBRRACE-UK. Reflecting on my placement with the MBRRACE-UK team remains pivotal to shaping my keen interest in research.
MBRRACE-UK operates from two sites: the University of Oxford, home to the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU), which focuses on maternal deaths and morbidity, and the University of Leicester, where I was based. The Leicester site is led by The Infant Mortality and Morbidity Studies (TIMMS) group, focusing on late fetal losses, stillbirths and neonatal deaths in the UK. At the time, the TIMMS team was under the leadership of Professor Elizabeth Draper.
During the five week placement, I gained valuable insights, not only into MBRRACE-UK but also into my own abilities and research skills. As part of the Professional Development module of my MSci, I was required to form a learning contract alongside a covering letter to assist in obtaining the leadership elective placement. I used this learning contract to address specific outcomes I aimed to achieve to support progress in my midwifery career, as shown in Table 1. The achievement of these goals were measured against the activities I undertook and the final reflective report based on my experience that was distributed to the TIMMS team to support with any future student elective experiences.
