Research priorities of NSW midwives.
OBJECTIVE
Research is vital to achieve optimum health outcomes for pregnant women, children and families. Recently, the benefit of setting research priorities to effectively utilize limited resources has been identified. Currently there is a lack of published Australian research data relevant to the practice of midwifery. Consultation with current practitioners is important to fulfill the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) key priority for a healthy start to life, ensure limited resources are expended appropriately and promote evidence-based midwifery practice. The aim of this study was to ascertain the perceived research priorities and the research experience of midwives in NSW, Australia.


METHODS
Postal questionnaire sent to the 1000 subscribers of Australian Midwifery, of whom 90% (900) are midwives, in March 2005 with key open-ended questions to ascertain midwifery research priorities and research experience of participants.


RESULTS
Respondents were all midwives with 95% indicating they were currently practising as a midwife. They identified six priority areas: professional practice; clinical issues; education and support; breastfeeding; psychosocial factors; rural/indigenous issues.


CONCLUSIONS
Priorities for research were identified and the need for a link between research and professional midwifery practice was highlighted. Midwives were positive about the possibility of becoming more actively involved in research and/or advocates for evidence based practice. The opportunity exists to take the broad priority areas from this study and develop research questions of relevance for the midwifery profession.
Reid
Judy
J
School of Nursing, College of Health and Science, University of Western Sydney (UWS), NSW, Australia. je.reid@uws.edu.au
O'Reilly
Rebecca
R
Beale
Barbara
B
Gillies
Donna
D
Connell
Tanya
T
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008880:Midwifery / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D011247:Pregnancy; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires