The contrast of Doctors and Midwives
The health care workforce comprises a wide variety of professionals who provide different health services. These practitioners often work in hospitals, training centres and private care settings. Doctors and midwives are among the health professionals who maintain the health of human beings by applying the principles of care and procedures of scientifically proven medicine. They also participate in researches aimed at improving the theories and development of operations utilized in healthcare settings. The doctors and midwives are required by the World Health Organization to have adequate training to deliver patient-centred care and ensure evidence-based practice. Besides, quality improvement and expertise in informatics are other qualifications of doctors and midwives. Even though doctors and nurses work in similar settings, the two professions have distinct differences in the delivery of care and scope of practice.
Doctors usually serve a larger volume of people as such; they do not have a personal connection to the patients. They deliver their care professionally without necessarily having an attachment to the patients. According to Reiger and Lane (2009), doctors should exhibit reliability and competency. When they possess these qualities, they are able to provide quality care when needed. As asserted by Reiger and Lane (2009), doctors have the obligation of ensuring that patients and their families feel cared for when making decisions on the patient’s condition. There has always existed a stereotype that doctors exhibit little interest in the patient’s conditions. In a study conducted by (Reiger and Lane, 2009), midwives in facilities expressed their concerns over doctors not having interest in the conditions of the patients, but were only concerned with the outcomes.
Midwives on the other hand, have personal connection with their patients. They often use kind words while reassuring their patients. According to Reiger and Lane (2009), midwives have great interest in the conditions of the patients, as they keenly monitor what is happening. Maternity patients have exhibited their strong desire to have midwives attend to them. According to Murphy (2018), pregnant women desired midwives as their service providers because, they exhibit great care in all aspects of womanhood. There are also less incidences of complications in patients who are attended to by midwives as they are well cared for (Murphy 2018). Since patients come from diverse backgrounds, midwives often provide care in terms of both emotional and physical support (Reiger and Lane 2009). Individualization of patient needs is another aspect that makes midwives experts in provision of care to pregnant women.
The scope of practice of doctors refers to the activities that they can exercise according to their training, education and their competence (Girardi et al. 2016). All these activities are conducted within the confines of the laws set by the authority (Girardi et al. 2016). Doctors have a wide scope of practice as they work with patients with various chronic conditions. These conditions include cancer, diabetes, hypertension, endemic diseases and in some cases infectious diseases (Girardi et al. 2016). In maternity section, doctors handle pregnancies with complications. They have the capability to handle these types of conditions since they are highly trained. The scope of practice of doctors in rural settings have been shown to carry out large number of procedures compared to their counterparts in other settings (Girardi et al. 2016). Empirical evidences have indicated that some doctors have reduced scope of practice due to factors such as complexity of clinical cases and high cost of insurance in cases of malpractice (Girardi et al. 2016). Majority of doctors are goal oriented as they focus on the outcomes of the patients. Therefore, they tend to make choices based on their scope of practice and training without taking into consideration the preferences of patients.
The scope of practice of midwives is smaller compared to that of doctors. According to Beek, McFadden and Dawson (2019), midwives provide essential sexual and reproductive health services. Some of these services include interventions given to pregnant women during labor and delivery (Kapfunde et al. 2017). Midwives practice in a wide variety of setting such as homes, hospitals and in communities (Kapfunde et al. 2017). They also collaborate with other health professionals such as doctors to provide qualitative care (Kapfunde et al. 2017). Midwives who are experts in their practice are autonomous. According to Kapfunde et al. (2017), autonomous midwives find ways of providing quality care to patients regardless of their environment. Autonomy also enables the midwives to make major decisions within their scope of practice (Kapfunde et al. 2017). Midwives are expected to be flexible, as Kapfunde et al. (2017), notes that, their scope of practice is constantly evolving and therefore, they have to conduct their services to suit the patient’s needs. The scope of practice of midwives enables them to focus on the choices and preferences of patients. According to Kapfunde et al. (2017), the most fundamental motivation in the practice of midwifery is the patient needs.
In conclusion, doctors and midwives are professionals in the health care setting who enhance the heath of human beings. Although doctors and midwives have the mandate of adhering to the principles of care and procedures of evidence-based medicine, they have different levels of training and education. Both professionals engage in researches aimed at expanding the theories of practice in their different fields of practice. The practitioners are comparable in that, they work in collaboration with other professionals so as to achieve the desired outcomes. Doctors and midwives differ in their mode of service delivery and their scope of practice. Doctors exhibit no personal attachment to their patients as they attend to several patients. Midwives on the other hand, are quite personal and provide intense care to their patients. The scope of practice of doctors is considerably large since they handle patients with chronic conditions. Midwives on the other hand, have a smaller scope of practice as they are inclined to the sexual and reproductive health of women in various settings.
References
Beek, K., McFadden, A., & Dawson, A. (2019). The role and scope of practice of midwives in humanitarian settings: a systematic review and content analysis. Human resources for health, 17(1), 5.
Girardi, S. N., Carvalho, C. L., Pierantoni, C. R., Costa, J. D. O., Stralen, A. C. D. S. V., Lauar, T. V., & David, R. B. (2016). Assessment of the scope of practice of physicians participating in the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) Program, and associated factors. Ciencia & saude coletiva, 21, 2739-2748.
Kapfunde, A., Haruzivishe, C., Samkange, C., & Stray-Pederson, B. (2017) Scope of Midwifery Practice: Concept Analysis.
Murphy, C. (2018). Midwives Are Growing in Popularity. Here’s What You Need to Know
Reiger, K. M., & Lane, K. L. (2009). Working together: collaboration between midwives and doctors in public hospitals. Australian Health Review, 33(2), 315-324.